Navigation
● 𝚙𝚠𝚍 — print working directory.
● ls — list directory contents.
● ls -la — list all files with details.
● cd /path — change to path.
● cd .. — go to parent directory.
● cd ~ — go to home directory.
● tree — display directories as a tree.
Files and directories
● touch file.txt — create an empty file or update
timestamp.
● mkdir dir — create a directory.
● mkdir -p a/b/c — create nested directories.
● cp src dst — copy a file or directory.
● cp -r dir1 dir2 — copy a directory recursively.
● mv old new — move or rename a file or directory.
● rm file — remove a file.
● rm -rf dir — remove a directory tree (use with caution).
● rmdir emptydir — remove an empty directory.
● stat file — show file metadata and timestamps.
● basename /path/file — print filename from path.
● dirname /path/file — print directory path from filename.
Viewing and paging
● cat file — print file contents.
● tac file — print file contents in reverse.
● head -n 20 file — show first 20 lines.
● tail -n 20 file — show last 20 lines.
● tail -f logfile — follow file updates (logs).
● less file — page through a file with search.
● more file — basic pager for files.
● nl file — number lines while viewing.
● wc -l file — count lines in a file.
Search and text processing
● grep "pattern" file — search pattern in a file.
● grep -ri "pattern" dir/ — recursive, case-insensitive
search.
● sort file — sort lines in a file.
● uniq file — omit repeated adjacent lines.
● cut -d ':' -f 1 file — select delimited fields.
● awk '{print $1}' file — print the first column.
● sed -i 's/old/new/g' file — in-place find and replace.
● tr 'a-z' 'A-Z' — translate characters (lower to upper).
● paste file1 file2 — merge lines side by side.
● tee out.txt — write output to file and stdout.
Permissions and ownership
● chmod 644 file — set rw-r--r-- permissions.
● chmod 755 file — set rwxr-xr-x permissions.
● chmod +x script.sh — make a file executable.
● chown user:group file — change owner and group.
● chgrp group file — change group ownership.
● umask 022 — set default permissions mask.
● getfacl file — view file ACLs.
● setfacl -m u:user:rwx file — set ACL for a user.
Processes and jobs
● ps aux — list all processes with details.
● top — interactive process viewer.
● htop — enhanced process viewer (if installed).
● pgrep name — find PIDs by process name.
● pkill name — send signals by process name.
● kill PID — terminate a process by PID.
● killall name — terminate processes by name.
● nice -n 10 cmd — start with adjusted priority.
● renice -n 10 -p PID — change priority of running process.
● jobs — list shell jobs.
● bg %1 — resume job in background.
● fg %1 — bring job to foreground.
● nohup command & — ignore hangups and run in
background.
● time command — measure execution time.
● watch -n 1 free — rerun a command at intervals.
System info and logs
● uname -a — kernel and system information.
● hostnamectl — view or set hostname.
● uptime — show load averages and uptime.
● free -h — memory and swap usage.
● vmstat — virtual memory statistics.
● iostat — CPU and I/O statistics.
● mpstat — per-CPU usage statistics.
● pidstat — per-process statistics.
● lscpu — CPU architecture details.
● lsusb — list USB devices.
● lspci — list PCI devices.
● lshw — hardware inventory.
● dmesg — kernel ring buffer messages.
● journalctl -xe — view recent critical system logs.
● journalctl -u nginx — view logs for a systemd unit.
Disks, partitions, and filesystems
● df -h — mounted filesystem disk usage.
● du -sh dir/ — directory size summary.
● lsblk — list block devices.
● blkid — print block device attributes.
● fdisk -l — list partition tables.
● parted -l — list partitions with parted.
● mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX1 — create an ext4 filesystem.
● fsck /dev/sdX1 — check and repair filesystem.
● mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt — mount a partition.
● umount /mnt — unmount a filesystem.
● cat /etc/fstab — view persistent mount table.
Networking and DNS
● ip addr — show IP addresses.
● ip route — show routing table.
● ping -c 4 host — test connectivity.
● traceroute host — trace network path.
● ss -tuln — list listening sockets and ports.
● netstat -tuln — legacy sockets and ports list.
● nslookup example.com — DNS query.
● dig example.com — detailed DNS query.
● curl -I https://example.com — HTTP request.
● wget https://example.com/file — download a file.
● ssh user@host — connect via SSH.
● scp file user@host:/path/ — copy file over SSH.
● sftp user@host — interactive file transfer over SSH.
● nc -l -p 1234 — listen on TCP port.
● nc host 80 — connect to TCP port.
● tcpdump -i eth0 port 443 — capture packets.
● nmap -sS host — scan ports with SYN.
● ufw enable — enable uncomplicated firewall.
● ufw allow 22 — allow SSH.
● iptables -L — list firewall rules.
● firewall-cmd --list-all — show firewalld config.
Archiving, compression, and sync
● tar -czf archive.tar.gz dir/ — create gzip tarball.
● tar -xzf archive.tar.gz — extract gzip tarball.
● tar -cf archive.tar dir/ — create tar archive.
● tar -xf archive.tar — extract tar archive.
● zip -r archive.zip dir/ — create zip archive.
● unzip archive.zip — extract zip archive.
● gzip file — compress with gzip.
● gunzip file.gz — decompress gzip file.
● bzip2 file — compress with bzip2.
● bunzip2 file.bz2 — decompress bzip2 file.
● xz file — compress with xz.
● unxz file.xz — decompress xz file.
● rsync -avz src/ dest/ — sync files locally.
● rsync -avz -e ssh src/ user@host:/dest/ — sync
over SSH.
● cpio -ov < filelist > archive.cpio — create cpio
archive.
Package management
(Debian/Ubuntu)
● apt-get update — refresh package lists.
● apt-get install nginx — install a package.
● apt-get upgrade — upgrade installed packages.
● apt-get remove pkg — remove a package.
● apt-cache search nginx — search packages.
● apt-cache show pkg — show package details.
● dpkg -i pkg.deb — install a .deb file.
● dpkg -r pkg — remove a .deb package.
Package management
(RHEL/CentOS/Fedora)
● yum install pkg — install a package.
● yum update — update packages.
● yum remove pkg — remove a package.
● dnf install pkg — install with dnf.
● dnf update — update with dnf.
● rpm -i pkg.rpm — install an RPM.
● rpm -e pkg — erase an RPM.
Services and scheduling
● systemctl start nginx — start a service.
● systemctl stop nginx — stop a service.
● systemctl restart nginx — restart a service.
● systemctl status nginx — check service status.
● systemctl enable nginx — enable at boot.
● systemctl disable nginx — disable at boot.
● service nginx start — legacy start command.
● service nginx status — legacy status command.
● crontab -e — edit cron jobs.
● crontab -l — list cron jobs.
● crontab -r — remove all cron jobs.
● at 09:00 — schedule one-time job.
● batch — run when load is low.
● sleep 5s — delay for five seconds.
Environment and shell
● env — print environment variables.
● echo $VAR — print a variable value.
● export VAR=value — set an environment variable.
● which command — show command path.
● history — show command history.
● alias ll='ls -la' — create a command alias.
● unalias ll — remove an alias.
Containers and orchestration
● docker run image — run a container.
● docker ps — list running containers.
● docker ps -a — list all containers.
● docker exec -it container bash — open a shell in a
container.
● docker logs container — show container logs.
● docker build -t image . — build an image.
● docker rmi image — remove an image.
● docker-compose up — start multi-container app.
● docker-compose down — stop and remove app.
● kubectl get pods — list pods.
● kubectl get nodes — list nodes.
● kubectl get services — list services.
● kubectl apply -f file.yaml — apply configuration.
● kubectl logs pod — view pod logs.
● kubectl exec -it pod -- bash — exec into a pod.
● kubectl describe pod podname — describe a pod.
● kubectl scale deployment name --replicas=3 — scale
a deployment.
● kubectl rollout restart deployment name — restart a
deployment.
● helm install release chart — install a Helm chart.
● helm upgrade release chart — upgrade a release.
● helm list — list releases.
● helm delete release — delete a release.
Cloud CLIs
● aws configure — set up AWS CLI credentials.
● aws s3 cp file s3://bucket/ — upload a file to S3.
● aws ec2 describe-instances — list EC2 instances.
● az login — authenticate Azure CLI.
● az vm list — list Azure VMs.
● gcloud auth login — authenticate gcloud.
● gcloud compute instances list — list GCP instances.
Shutdown and reboot
● shutdown -h now — power off immediately.
● shutdown -r now — reboot immediately.
● shutdown -h +10 — schedule power off in 10 minutes.
● reboot — restart the system.
● poweroff — power off the system.
● halt — halt the system.
● init 0 — switch to shutdown runlevel.
● init 6 — switch to reboot runlevel.
