Linux Commands Cheatsheet

Common tools, practical flags, and quick reminders for everyday terminal work.

Commands assume a typical Linux shell like bash or zsh.

Navigation and Files

pwd
Print current directory.
ls
List files in current directory.
ls -lah
List with details, human-readable sizes, and hidden files.
cd <dir>
Change directory (cd - jumps to previous).
mkdir -p <dir/path>
Create directory (and parents if needed).
cp [-r] <src> <dst>
Copy files (-r for directories).
mv <src> <dst>
Move or rename files/directories.
rm <file>
Remove a file (rm -r for directories, rm -rf is dangerous).

Viewing and Editing

cat <file>
Print entire file to stdout.
less <file>
View file with paging and search (/ to search, q to quit).
head -n 20 <file>
Show first 20 lines.
tail -n 20 <file>
Show last 20 lines; tail -f follows new lines (logs).
nano <file>
Simple terminal editor.
vim <file>
Powerful modal editor (:q! to quit without saving, :wq to save & quit).

Search and Filters

grep "pattern" <file>
Search for lines containing a pattern.
grep -R "pattern" <dir>
Recursive search in a directory tree.
grep -Ri "pattern" <dir>
Case-insensitive recursive search.
find . -name "*.log"
Find files matching a pattern from current directory down.
sort
Sort lines from stdin (pipe into it).
uniq [-c]
Collapse adjacent duplicates (-c shows counts; usually after sort).

Permissions and Ownership

chmod +x <file>
Make a file executable.
chmod 644 <file>
Set read/write for owner, read-only for group/others (common for files).
chmod 755 <dir>
Owner can read/write/execute; others read/execute (common for dirs).
chown <user>[:group] <path>
Change owner (and optionally group) of file/dir.

Processes and System

ps aux
List all processes.
ps aux | grep <name>
Find processes by name.
top
Interactive view of processes and resource usage (q to quit).
htop
Nicer version of top (may require install).
kill <pid>
Send TERM signal to a process.
kill -9 <pid>
Force kill (SIGKILL) a stuck process.
df -h
Disk usage by filesystem (human-readable).
du -sh <path>
Total size of a directory or file.

Networking and Archives

ping -c 4 <host>
Check connectivity to a host (4 packets).
curl -I <url>
Fetch only HTTP headers (quick endpoint check).
curl -O <url>
Download a file to current directory.
tar -czf archive.tar.gz <dir>
Create a compressed archive from a directory.
tar -xzf archive.tar.gz
Extract a .tar.gz archive.
ssh <user>@<host>
SSH into a remote host using your default key.
scp <file> <user>@<host>:<path>
Copy a file to a remote host via SSH.

Jump to other references from the Terminal Cheatsheets index, or open the Git and tmux cheatsheets.