Some Essential Linux Commands For DevOps

1. ls: (List Segment) Lists all files and directories in the current directory.

2. ls -a: Shows hidden files (hidden files in linux are starting with a dot).

3. ls -l: Lists files and directories along with permissions, size, owner, group, date and time of last
modification.

4. cd <directory_name>: (Change Directory) Changes to the specified directory.

Ex: cd /home (home is a directory)

5. cd .. : Moves one level up to the parent directory (Suppose you are currently in the directory
/home/user/documents. If you run the command (cd ..)You will be moved up one level to /home/user, as
this is the parent directory of /home/user/documents. If you run cd .. again from /home/user, you will
move up another level, and the directory will change to /home, which is the parent of /home/user. If you
run cd .. when you're at the root directory /, nothing will happen because / is the top-level directory and
does not have a parent.)

6. pwd: (Print Working Directory) Displays the full path to the current directory.

7. mkdir <directoryname>: (Make Directory) Creates a new directory in the current working directory.

Ex: mkdir cloud

mkdir aa bb cc dd (make multiple directories at same time)

mkdir –p /a/b/c/d (make a nested directory )

8. cat <filename>: (Concatenate) Displays the content of a file or creates a new file.

Ex: cat > aws (to create file using cat command we use > followed by file nam)

cat aws ( to see content of file)

9. touch <filename>: Creates a new empty file.

Ex: touch test1

touch test1 test2 test3 test4 (to make multiple empty file at same time )

10. rm <filename>: (Remove) Deletes the specified file.

Ex: rm test1

11. rmdir <directoryname>: (Remove Directory) Deletes an empty directory.

Ex: rmdir xyz

12. cp <source> <destination>: (Copy) Copies a file or folder from the source to the destination.

Ex: cp file1 file2 (cp copies a file or directory)

13. mv <source> <destination>: (Move) Moves a file or folder from the source to the destination or
renames it.
Ex: mv file1 file2 (mv deletes the source file or directory after moving it.)

14. cp -r <source> <destination>: Copies directories recursively.

Ex: cp –r file1 file2 (-r stands for recursive)

15. find / -name <filename>: Searches for a file or directory by its name, starting from the root directory.

Ex: find / -name project (here project is file or folder name)

16. less <filename>: Views the content of a file page by page (great for large files).

Ex: less project

17. head <filename>: Displays the first ten lines of a file.

Ex: head /etc/passwd (to see any number of line use –n <number of line> for example to see
only 2 lines from top command will be: head –n 2 file name)

18. tail <filename>: Displays the last ten lines of a file.

Ex: tail /etc/passwd

19. ps: Displays currently active processes.

20. top: (Table of processes) Displays all running processes in real-time.

21. kill <pid>: (Process ID) Kills the process with the given PID (Process ID).

22. pkill <name>: Kills the process by name.

23. chmod <octal> <filename>: (Change Mode) Changes the permissions of a file (Octal values between 0
and 7).

Ex: Chmod 755 test1 (755 is permission for file test1)

24. chown <ownername> <filename>: (Change Owner) Changes the owner of a file.

Ex: chown prity test1 (prity user will become owner of file test1)

25. chgrp <groupname> <filename>: (Change Group) Changes the group owner of a file.

Ex: chgrp HR test1 (here HR is name of group)

26. grep <pattern> <files>: (Global Regular Expression Print) Searches for a pattern in files.

Ex: grep root /etc/passwd (root is pattern we want to search)

27. grep -r <pattern> <dir>: Searches recursively for a pattern in a directory.

Ex: grep –r root /etc/passwd (root is pattern we want to search)

28. echo 'text': Prints text to the console.

Ex: echo “Welcome”

29. diff <file1> <file2> : (Difference) Compares two files and shows the differences.

30. wc <filename>: (Word Count) Counts lines, words, and characters in a file.
Ex: wc test1

31. df: (Disk Filesystem) Shows disk usage for file systems.

32. df -h: Shows disk usage in a human-readable format.

33. du –sh <file/folder>: (Disk Usage) See the size of file and folder.

Ex: du –sh /etc/passwd

34. free: Displays memory and swap usage.

35. date: Displays the current date and time.

36. cal: (calendar ) Displays this month’s calendar.

37. uptime: Shows system uptime.

38. whoami: See the logging user name

39. hostname: See the host name.

40. history: Display all used commands

Shortcuts :
Command Description

ctrl+c Terminates a process.

ctrl+z Stop a process and puts it in the background.

ctrl+d Logs out from the current session.

ctrl+l Clears the terminal screen.

tab Auto- completes flie/ directory names