Linux Terminal Commands List - Overview: Console

Overview of Linux commands and their descriptions ...

Help

[command] --help	outputs a short help text for the respective command
man [Command]	shows the manual page of the command

Basic functions

Command	Description
alias	Creates alias names for commands.
at	Execute a command once at a specified time
batch	Execute a command once when the system is not busy
cal	Displays a calendar
clear	Clears the console
comm	Selects equal lines of the output/file
crontab	Displays the user-specific cron table or opens it for editing
date	Outputs the current date.
echo	Outputs a text to the console.
env	Outputs all environment variables.
expr	Evaluate expressions.
find	Searches the directory tree, starting from the current directory, for a file.
fold	Breaks overlong lines
grep	Searches for a string in a file, or a redirected output (echo test.txt \| grep blafasel)
halt	Shutdown of the system.
history	Prints the entries in the history file of the user numbered
hostname	Displays the name of the computer
init	Change runlevel
join	Concatenates lines of output
logout	Log out from the console
nl	Numbers the lines of the output
pr	Converts texts for printing.
printenv	Outputs all environment variables.
reboot	Restart the system (like shutdown -r now)
rev	Invert string
shutdown -r now	Reboot the system (like reboot)
shutdown -h now	Shut down the system
sleep	Wait seconds
sort	Sorts the output of programs, respectively files
startx	starts the X-Window system, a graphical user interfacee
strings	Extracts all (readable) strings from a file/input
sum	Determines file length and checksum of a file
tee	Doubles the output of a program (for simultaneous display on the screen and logging to a file)
type	Displays the type of a file and the interpretation of the file name as a parameter
uniq	Removes duplicate lines in a file
wc	Counts letters, lines and words of the input. e.g. to count the number of files in a folder: `ls -1 \| wc -l`

Partition/Directory/File

Command	Description
badblocks	Searches a partition for damaged blocks (BadBlocks)
basename	Prints a file name without path information
cat	Joins several files and prints the result
cd	Switches to the user's home directory
cd [directory]	Switches to the specified directory
cd ..	Switches to the parent directory
cd /	Switches to the root directory
cd -	changes to the previous directory
chgrp	change group membership of a file
chmod	change access rights
chown	change owner of a file
cmp	Compares two files for matching
cp	Copies files and directories
cpio	Copies files to/from archives
dirname	Prints only the path to a file
dd	Copies partitions/file systems byte by byte, see Cloning, Copying, Image Tools
dumpe2fs	Prints information about the file system on a partition
e2fsck	Checks and repairs Linux ext2 file systems
e2label	Assigns a label to a file system or prints the label
fdisk	Creates and deletes partitions. Displays the current partition table
file	Displays the file type of a file.
fsck	Checks and repairs Linux file systems
head	Prints the first lines of a file
hdparm	Program for setting various parameters of a hard disk
less [file]	like more but you can also scroll upwards
ln	Creates a link to a file/directory
ls	Displays the contents of the current or specified directory
mkdirhere	Creates a directory hierarchy
mkdir	Creates a new directory
mkdosfs	Creates a Dos (FAT16 and FAT32) filesystem on the specified partition
mke2fs	Creates an ext2 filesystem on the specified partition
mkfs	Frontend to different filesystem creators
mkswap	Creates a Linux swap partition on the specified partition
mount	e.g.mount /mnt/cdrom Mounts a file system (a partition, disk..) into the directory tree (to a mountpoint)
more	displays the contents of a file page by page (only downwards).
mv	Moves files and directories (also renames)
pwd	Displays the current directory
rm -rf [Verz]	Deletes files and directories below [Verz].
rmdir	Deletes a directory
split	Split file (e.g. for transport by mail or floppy disk)
tail	Prints the last lines of a file
touch	Changes the timestamp of files. If a file does not exist, it will be created with a size of 0 bytes.
tune2fs	Program to set various parameters of the ext2 filesystem (e.g. maximum mount count)
umount	Detaches a filesystem from the directory tree

Network

Command	Description
ftp	Opens an FTP session to the specified computer (FTP server) FTP : File Transfer Protocol
ifconfig	shows the current IP address (like ipconfig in Windows)
ipchains	tool to configure the kernel firewall
netdate	time synchronization with a remote computer
netstat	Prints information about network connections, routing tables
ping	Sends small data packets to the given IP address and waits for a response, tool to check network connection
rcp	Remote Copy. Copy function on a remote computer.
route	create static routes
telnet	opens a telnet session to the specified computer (remote control)
tty	shows the device you are logged in with

system

Command	Description
df	Displays the memory usage of the partitions of the system,
du	Shows the memory usage of individual directories e.g. for specific folders: `du -sh *`
free	Shows the memory usage of the system. Divided into RAM and SWAP space.
kill	Terminates the process with the given process ID (PID)
killall	Kills all processes with the given name
killproc	Kills the process whose executable file can be found in the given path
nice	Sets the priority of a process
nohup	Starts a program immune to SIGHUPs
pidof	prints the PID(s) of the process with the given name
ps	Displays all processes with their PID, the user ID of the executing user, the terminal ID etc.
pstree	Displays all processes in a tree view
top	Displays processes in a constantly updating list. The processes that need the most CPU time are shown at the top.
uptime	Displays the uptime of the machine. The uptime is the time since the last reboot.

Print

Command	Description
lpq	Display print jobs
lpr	Add print job to printer queue
lprm	Delete print job
lptest	Output test pattern for printer test (lptest \| lpr)

Search

Command	Description
find	Extensive search tool e.g. find . \| grep [file] searches starting from the current directory for [FILE].
locate	searches files using an index created by updatedb
updatedb	Creates a search index over the whole file system for locate
whereis [program]	Searches the binary (executable file), the source code and the man page of a program
which	Specifies the first found path of a program in the path (echo /usr/local/apache/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:)

User

Command	Description
chfn	Change the user information of an AccountRoom-NumberWork-PhoneHome-Phone
chsh	Change the login shell of a user account
exit	Leave current session
finger	Prints the login name, real name, terminal name, write status, idle time (time since last account use), login time, location, and office phone number of the specified user account.
groupadd	Create a new user group
groupdel	Delete an existing user group
groupmod	Modify the data of an existing user group
groups	Shows the group membership of a user
id	own login name including group
last	shows the last logins
login	Log in as user
logname	Returns the own login name
newgrp	Change the current group
passwd	Set or change the password of a user
su	Open a new session with another account
sudo	Execute command as root.
useradd	Create a new user account
userdel	Delete a user.
usermod	Modify an existing user account.
who	Prints the login names of the currently logged in users
whoami	Prints the own login name