UNIX/LINUX Top100 Commands

Version 1.24 — 17.10.2022

© 2003–2022 T. Birnthaler, OSTC GmbH

17. Oktober 2022

Inhaltsverzeichnis
1 The most important UNIX/LINUX commands 2

2 Other important UNIX/LINUX commands 3

UNIX/LINUX Top100 Commands — 1.24 — 17.10.2022© 2003–2022 T. Birnthaler, OSTC GmbH

1 The most important UNIX/LINUX commands

man CMD Display description for CMD [manual]
man -f/whatis CMD Display 1 line of description for CMD (man-Index) [file]
man -k/apropos TXT Display 1 line of description for topic TXT (man-Index) [keyword]
info CMD Display description for CMD (GNU programs!)
help [CMD] Display description for all/builtin shell CMD
CMD --help/-h/-?/-. Display usage message for CMD (GNU/other programs!)
type [-a] CMD Search for CMD type/place (builtin/alias/function/binary) [all]
who Display all users logged in
whoami who am i Display currently (in terminal) logged in user
id [-a] [USER] Display own/USER name + group memberships + IDs [identity/all]
su [-[l]] USER Switch to account USER (-=-l=incl. environment!) [switch user/login]
su su -[l] Become superuser root (without/with environment change!)
exit logout CTRL-D Log out from terminal/switch back to former account/end of file [EOF]
sudo CMD Execute one(!) command as root [superuser do]
passwd [USER] Change (own/USER) password (1x old, 2x new one) [password]
more/less FILE... Display FILE. . . page by page (also pg, page)
CMD | more/less Display CMD output page by page
lp/lpr FILE... Print out FILE. . . (lpr=BSD, lp=SysV) [line print]
CMD | lp/lpr Print out CMD output
cd [PATH] cd ˜ Switch to directory PATH/own home directory [change directory]
cd / cd .. cd - Switch to root/parent/previous directory (back and forth)
pwd Display current directory [print working directory]
ls [DIR|FILE]... Display content of current dir./DIR/FILE (sorted alphab. ascending!)
ls -l ... Display file names + attributes . . . [long]
ls -a ... Display all file names (hidden ones .XXX too!) [all]
ls -d ... Display only directory name, not directory content [directory]
ls -h ... Display file size in unit K/M/G/T/P/E/T/Z/Y (instead of byte!) [human readable]
ls -i ... Display index-node number [inode]
ls -F ... Append file type char to name (*=exe, /=dir, @=link!) [Flag]
ls -R ... Display whole directory tree [Recursive]
ls -r ... Sort descending (instead of ascending!) [reverse]
ls -S ... Display sorted by file size (ascending!) [Size]
ls -t ... Display sorted by modification time (ascending!) [time]
ls --color=auto File type by color (black=file, blue=dir, turq.=link, green=exec, yellow=device!)
tree [DIR] Display directory tree graphical from current/DIR directory
touch FILE... Update change date of FILE. . . or create new file [touch]
* *.sh ? [abc] File name pattern (all, extension sh, any char, 1 char from abc) [globbing]
mv FILE NAME Rename FILE to NAME [move]
mv FILE... DIR Move FILE. . . to directory DIR [move]
mv FILE DIR/NAME Move FILE to directory DIR and rename it [move]
cp FILE NAME Copy FILE to NAME (overwrite!) [copy]
cp FILE... DIR Copy FILE. . . to directory DIR [copy]
ln FILE NAME Create hard/physical link NAME to FILE [link]
ln -s FILE NAME Create symbolic/logical link NAME to FILE [symbolic]
rm FILE... Delete FILE [remove]
rm -r DIR... Delete complete directory tree starting at DIR. . . [recursive]
mkdir [-p] DIR... Create directory (path) DIR. . . [make directory/path]
rmdir DIR... Delete directory DIR. . . (must be empty!) [remove directory]
cat FILE1 FILE2... Concatenate files and output them to stdout [concatenate]
CTRL-D End of input [EOF/end of file] or logout (instead of exit/logout!)
chmod MODE FILE... Change file perm. [ugoa][+-=][rwxst] (only owner!) [change mode]
umask [NNN] Display/set standard permission mask 000-777 for new files/dirs
(permissions to be removed, r=4, w=2, x=1!) [usage mask]
umask Displays 022 (SuSE, Redhat!) or 002 (Debian, Ubuntu!)
chown USER FILE... Change owner to USER (only root!) [change owner]
chgrp GROUP FILE... Change group owner to GROUP (only owner!) [change group]
UNIX/LINUX Top100 Commands — 1.24 — 17.10.2022© 2003–2022 T. Birnthaler, OSTC GmbH

2 Other important UNIX/LINUX commands

ps pstree top Display own processes/process tree/most active processes [process status]
ps auxw ps -ef Display all processes (BSD/SysV) [all/user/extended/wide/every/full]
kill PID/%JOB... Stop (background) process PID/JOB. . . / (standard signal SIGTERM=15)
kill -9 PID/%JOB Stop (background) process PID/JOB. . . in any case (SIGKILL=9)
kill -l List all signal names + numbers [list]
CTRL-C Cancel CMD entry/currently running CMD (SIGINT=2) [cancel]
CMD & Run CMD in background (as JOB)
nohup CMD & Analogue, don’t stop at logout [no hangup]
CTRL-Z bg Stop running CMD + switch to background [background]
bg/fg %JOB Switch JOB to background/foreground
jobs Display all background processes of shell
CMD < FILE Read input for CMD from FILE
CMD > FILE >> FILE Write/append output of CMD to FILE
CMD 2> FILE 2>> ... Write/append error messages of CMD to FILE
CMD 2> /dev/null Ignore error messages of CMD
CMD > FILE 2>&1 Write output + error messages of CMD to FILE
CMD1 | CMD2 Connect output of CMD1 to input of CMD2 [pipe]
VAR="TXT" Set shell variable VAR to value TXT (no space around =!)
export VAR Convert shell variable VAR to environment variable
echo $VAR ${VAR} Display content of shell/environment variable VAR twice
set env printenv Display all shell/environment variables
HOME PWD Home directory for cd/current directory [print working directory]
HOST HOSTNAME Name of machine
LANG LC_ALL LC_* Language settings (C, en_US.UTF8, de_DE.UTF8) [language/locale]
PAGER VIEWER Name of standard viewer (e.g. more/less; autom. called by man)
PATH Search path for executables (dir list separated by :!)
PS1 PS2 PS3 PS4 Shell prompt: normal/continuation/select/debug [prompt string]
TERM Terminal type (editors, more, curses library) [terminal]
USER LOGNAME Name of logged in user [login name]
EDITOR VISUAL Name of standard editor (e.g. autom. called by crontab/visudo)
PRINTER LPDEST Name of standard printer (e.g. autom. called by lp/lpr)
find [DIR] ... Search/list/process files/dirs by name + attr. starting from curr. dir/DIR
grep "TXT" FILE... Display lines of FILE containing TXT [global regex print]
CMD | grep "TXT" Display lines of CMD output containing TXT
head [-N] FILE... Display first 10/N lines of FILE
CMD | head [-N] Display first 10/N lines of CMD output
tail [-N] FILE... Display last 10/N lines of FILE
CMD | tail [-N] Display last 10/N lines of CMD output
tail -f FILE... Show added lines at end of FILE continuously [follow]
tail +N FILE... Show lines from line N of FILE. . .
wc -l/-w/-c FILE... Display number of lines/words/characters in FILE [word count/line/word/char]
CMD | wc -l/-w/-c Display number of lines/words/characters of CMD output
echo [-n] "TXT" Display TXT on terminal (-n=without linefeed!) [no newline]
clear CTRL-L Erase terminal content (blank screen) [formfeed/leeren]
date [+FORMAT] Display date + time (according to FORMAT, e.g. %T %D %H:%M:%S %d.%m.%Y)
more/less FILE... Page through FILE by following cmds (man autom. uses more/less!):
SPACE RETURN Skip 1 page/line further [space key/return key]
b Skip 1 page back (only less!) [backward]
1G G NG Go to top/bottom/line N of file (nur less!) [Go]
/TXT ?TXT Search TXT forward/backward (only less!)
n N Repeat last search forward/backward (only less!) [next]
:n :p Jump to next/previous (only less!) file [next/previous]
q h Leave more/less [quit]; Display help [help]
CTRL-R TXT... Search cmd history for last one containing TXT [reverse search]
CTRL-R Search next cmd in history containing TXT [reverse search]
Cursor-Up/Down Goto previous/next cmd in history
!NR !TXT !! Execute cmd number NR/beginning with TXT/last from history