 pwd prints the current working directory cd changes to another directory ls lists the directory contents cat lists or prints contents of file cp copy one file to another mv move file or directory to another location also used to rename files mkdir make new directory rmdir remove directory rm remove files and directories touch create blank file or update metadata time info locate locate a file find find a file grep search through file contents sudo perform task as root usually proceeds other command df lists disks with associated disk space info du lists disk usage by files or directories head view first lines of any text file tail view last lines of any text file diff compare two files tar compress files into a smaller size chmod change permissions chown change owner jobs print current processes started by the shell in current session kill terminate a process ping check connectivity by throwing data at a server and waiting for a response wget download files using the command line u name check linux kernel information top list current system information including processes and processor usage history list pass terminal commands man user manual for given command echo print out given data useful for entering data into a file zip compress multiple files into a zip file unzip uncompress a zip file post name print current host name user ad add new user user dl delete a system user pass wd change current user password alias create shortcut for longer command unalias remove an alias from current shell session exit exit current shell environment shut down shut down the computer in one minute reboot reboot the system ps prints the processes of the current shell session which prints out full path of the given shell command or program shred destroy a file by overriding it with other useless data less terminal pager that allows you to scroll through long files inside terminal who am i prints current username what is prints a single line description of given command wc gets word count of given file also helpful for getting number of files in a directory where is prints location of given search term dd disk destroyer copy one disk image to another cal show a calendar mount mount to drive you mount unmounted drive clear clear current terminal contents cmp compares two files and determines if they're identical comm similar to diff compares the files for differences sort sort contents of file and display in terminal export set variables and current shell environment ssh connect to outside connection securely kill all terminate all related processes of given application ln create a link between one file and another similar to shortcuts awk scripting language used to manipulate data bc basic calculator when used with echo bg used to place process or action in background cf disk manage system partitions fdisk manage system partitions chk config used to list all available services chpasswd used to change passwords of multiple users at a time chroot used to change the root directory chsh used to change the current shell chvt used to change between different tty's column display output in neat columns date display current date dir displayed contents of a directory similar to ls eject used to eject removable media like usb sticks and hard drives fc-cash scans font directories fc-list list available fonts free displays total amount of free space along with memory info group add add new group group del delete existing group group mod modify existing group halt stops all cpu processes reboots the system or shuts down the system lsblk display info about connected drives blkid show info about mounted drives ls usb shows info about connected usb devices and buses pinkie displays information about current logged in users power off similar to shut down powers off the computer rename renames files can be used with regex sleep delay execution of a command split split large files into several smaller files tree display recursive directory contents in tree form uptime display how long a computer has been up since its last reboot users show current logged in users chag e change when a password expires chfn change current user details chg rp change group ownership of file or directory env print current list of environment variables rsync backup directories to another location journal ctl used to display system d and kernel logs