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
41. man: (Manual) Displays the user manual for other commands, helping us understand how to use them
and what options they support.
Ex: man ls , man mkdir
42. ls –i: Show file and folders with name and inode number.
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
