TOP-30 Most Used Linux Commands - ByteScout
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TOP-30 Most Used Linux Commands

Linux is an open-source operating system. It is based on the Linux kernel and this operating system is a typical package in a Linux distribution. It was developed for computers that were using intelx86 architecture. There are many commands in the Linux environment that are used for numerous other purposes. The following are some of the most important Linux commands which are frequently used by users while working in the Linux environment.

Here’s the list of common Linux commands with examples that might be a great cheat sheet for any developer:

  1. Cd command
  2. ls command
  3. Man command
  4. Cat command
  5. Mkdir command
  6. Chmod command
  7. Rmdir command
  8. Touch command
  9. Locate command
  10. Clear command
  11. Rm command
  12. Mv command
  13. Curl command
  14. Echo command
  15. Free command
  16. Groups command
  17. Head command
  18. History command
  19. Passwd command
  20. Ping command
  21. alias command
  22. ZIP command
  23. dd command
  24. chown command
  25. sudo command
  26. cal command
  27. bc command
  28. change command
  29. df command
  30. name command

1. cd Linux command

The cd command is one of the most used Linux commands. The purpose of this command is to change the directory. This cd command, popularly called chdir (change directory), is a code administrative command used in several versions of Windows that can modify the home directory. It could be applied in routine programs and terminal scripts. In other words, it enables to switch between file lists. For example, if you needed to shift from the home directory to the myfile directory, you would enter the following command:

cd/myfile/application

2. ls command

The ls command is the most common and the most useful command in the Linux environment. The ls command is also called as the list command which works in the Linux terminal to display all of the important folders or directories listed under a particular file system. For instance, the command:

ls /myfiles

3. man command

The man command is one of the best Linux commands. This command is also known as the manual command. The man command is just a designed help system for Linux commands. It permits individuals to search the reference manuals for authorities and other utilities executed in the interface. A command explanation, appropriate parameters, variables, illustrations, and other helpful parts may all be found on the man site (brief for handbook page). It is used to display the manual use of the inserted command. In other words, it is the meta-command of Linux. Entering the man command will display all the information about the command. For example:

man ls

The above command will display all the necessary information about the ls command.

4. cat command

The cat Linux command is a short form of concatenate. This cat command is a Linux utility tool. Printing the contents of a file to the ordinary output sequence is an item of Edmond’s most incredible well-known applications. Aside from it, a cat command may be used to save a little text to either a file. It lists the information of files to the Linux terminal window. This is much quicker than opening the file in an editor. If you want to read the data of .bash_log_out file, enter the following command:

cat .bash_logout

5. mkdir command

mkdir Linux is one of the basic Linux commands in the environment. As the name suggests, this command is used to make a directory or in other words, it used to create a directory. The following command will create a new folder called a test folder. An example of the mkdir command:

mkdir testfolder

6. chmod command

The chmod command is used to set the file permission or a flag on a folder or a file. The flags describe who can read, write into the file or a folder. This is one of the most crucial commands of the Linux environment. It is widely used by administrators. For example,

chmod -R 7 test.txt

7. rmdir command

Just like the mkdir Linux command, rmdir is also one of the most used commands. This command allows users to remove any file or directory from a particular location. In other words, you can use this command to delete a particular directory. For example, the following command will remove the mydirectory from the system.

rmdir mydirectory

8. touch command

The touch command is just like a mkdir command. The touch command is standard in UNIX/Linux Linux kernel for creating, changing, and modifying file timing information. It’s used to make a file that doesn’t have any content. The touch command generated an unfilled directory. The main difference between touch command and mkdir is that the touch command allows its users to create a text file or a .doc file.  For example,

touch mytestfile.txt

9. locate command

The locate command is also called as the find command. This command is used to find or locate a particular file. This command is one of the common Linux commands. If you don’t know the exact name of the file or the exact destination of the particular file then this command is very useful. The following command will locate the file which contains the words “result”, “final” “total”

locate -i *result*final**total*

10. clear command

As the name suggests, this command is used to clear the Linux window terminal. Type cls into Command Prompt and hit Enter. This helps to clear an application’s full screen. Quit Command Prompt and resume it. Close the lid by clicking the X as in the top right corner, but reopen it all as usual. For using this command user just has to type clear and then press enter. This is the most used command in the Linux command line environment.

clear

11. rm command

Just like rmdir which removes the directory, rm command is used to remove the particular file. When the rm command is used, but only with config files, it discards all the items alone without the owner’s permission. Maintain certified backup of all the critical documents at all times. Suppose you want to remove .txt file or a .doc file then rm command is useful. For example,

rm mytestfile.txt

12. mv command

The mv command is one of the most used commands in the Linux environment. This command enables a user to move a file to another directory. The mv command reorganizes the folder or transfers the directory from one directory to another. The base file name is retained when you relocate a file or directory to another guide. If the result is anything except a yes, the mv command ignores a particular file and moves to the next one given. For example,

mv/myfolder/appli/myapps /myfolder/newapp/firstapp

13. curl command

The curl command is used to extract information from Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) or IP addresses. If it is not installed in your Linux environment then, first of all, you have to use apt-get command to install curl package.

curl https://github.com/torvalds/linux

14. echo command

The echo command is used to print the specified text on the terminal window. For example, if you want to print “Hello World” text on the terminal window then this command can be used.

echo Hello World

15. free command

The free command is used to generate information about memory usage. It calculates for both the main Random Access Memory (RAM) and swap memory. The free command shows data on a system’s utilized and unused capacity and swapped information processing. It shows RAM in kilobytes by standard (kilobytes). RAM (random access memory) and exchange storage make up the majority of memory. For example,

free -h

16. groups command

The groups command is one of the most important commands of Linux environments. In Linux, a “group” is a grouping of users. The “groups” command displays a list of all the groups in the terminal, along with their information. Users with comparable security and access privileges can be grouped to make things easier. We may use the “/etc/group” and “get” commands to see a list of nations. This command describes the membership of a particular user. In other words, it tells which user belongs to which particular group. For example,

groups scott

groups thomas

17. head command

The head command is used to display the first 10 lines of a particular file. If you want to read fewer lines then the extension -n can be used. As the name indicates, the head command prints the top N numbers of data from the provided input. It displays that the very first 10 lines of both the members are able by defaults. Data from each file is introduced by its document if only one filename is given. For example,

head -myfile.c

18. history command

The history command is most frequently used and one of the most important Linux commands. This command displays the list of the previously used commands. For using this command you just have to enter history.

history

19. passwd command

The password command is one of the useful Linux commands which is used to change your own password. This command is often used by the administrator to change other users’ passwords also. For example

sudo passwd jeff

20. ping command

The ping command is the top command in the Linux environment. This command is always used to check the network connection or to troubleshoot networking issues. To use this command all you have to do is provide an IP address after ping. For example

ping 8.8.8.8

21.alias

The alias command tells the shell to return one string with a different string while performing the commands. When users frequently have to apply a single command many times, in those circumstances, they use something called an alias. Alias is like an alternative command that will have identical working as if they are addressing the entire command.

$ alias rm='rm -i'

The above alias will stop unintentional deletion.

22. ZIP

ZIP is a confining and file packaging service for Linux. Each file is saved in a separate .zip file with the extension .zip. zip is used to shrink the files to decrease file size and also utilized as a file package utility. zip is free in various operating systems like Unix, Linux, Windows, etc. The program is beneficial for packaging a collection of files for sharing; for archiving files; and for maintaining disk location by provisionally reducing additional files or folders.

$zip newfile.zip name.txt

23. dd

dd is a command-line service for Linux operating systems whose main goal is to change and copy files. This is one of the most important commands. dd can also be utilized for chores such as backing up the boot area and getting a thickened mass of temporary data. It can also perform transformations on the data as it is depicted, like byte order exchanging and change to and from the ASCII and EBCDIC.

dd if = /dev/hda of = ~/hdadisk.img

The above command is used to create an image of a Hard Disk. The dd command can also be used to create CDROM Backup and to restore the Hard Disk image.

24. chown

The chown command enables users to modify the user and/or group control of an assigned file, directory, or representative link. In Linux, all files are connected with an owner and a collection and distributed with support access preferences for the file owner, the segments, and others. In Linux, each userhas some characteristics affiliated with them. These characteristics include a user ID and a home directory. Users can add more users into a unit or a group to make the method of controlling users more straightforward. In this, a stipulated user can be connected with a “default group”. It can also be a segment of other groups on the machine. In Linux, regular users can modify the group of the file only if they hold the file rights and solely to a group of which they are a branch. Managing users can modify the group control of all files.

sudo chown root myfile1.txt

25. sudo

The sudo command lets users operate applications as a different user, by default the root. If the user uses a lot of time on the prompt then the sudo is one of the commands that users will utilize pretty often. This is the most important command. sudo is actually a “Super User DO” command in Linux. It is usually applied as a prefix to any command that the only superuser is permitted to execute. If someone prefixes “sudo” with any Linux command then that command runs with heightened rights or in other words provides a user with precise authorizations to perform a command as superuser.

sudo apt-get update

26. cal

Cal command is one of the most widely used Linux commands. Users can fire the cal command from the Linux terminal window to view the time. Linux coders or administrators can also see the calendar of a whole year by firing the following command. It displays the calendar of the whole current year with the prevailing date displayed.

cal -y

27. bc

bc is one more amazing and super command for Linux users as it enables Linux coders to allow a command-line calculator in the Linux terminal window. Linux programmers can do any computation in the Terminal window itself only. The following command is displaying its use:

$ x=`echo "20+7" | bc`

28. chage

The Linux command chage is called the change age. This command can be utilized to modify the expiry data of the user’s password. This is an exceptional command for system administrators or Linux administrators. The following command is displaying its use:

chage -h

29. df

df is one of the most important Linux commands. With the help of this command, users can retrieve all the data of their file system just by running the df command in the Linux Terminal window.

The following command is displaying its use:

df

30. uname

uname is one of the more helpful Linux commands to have as it unfolds Linux system data when fired in the Linux Terminal shell. In this command,users can see all system information by typing uname -a in Terminal while

for the information related to kernel release by typing the in uname -r.

And for operating system data, simply type uname -o. The following command is displaying its use:

uname -a

The Linux commands list can be endless but we reserve more techniques for the next tutorial.

 

   

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