Linux Command Cheat Sheet

Print the current working directory.

List all files, including hidden ones, with details.

Change directory. `cd ..` goes up one level, `cd ~` goes home.

Copy files or directories recursively.

Move or rename a file or directory.

Delete recursively without confirmation. No undo — use with care.

Create a directory, including any missing parent directories.

Search for files by name under a path.

Print a file's full contents to the terminal.

Page through a file. `q` to quit, `/text` to search.

Show the first 20 lines of a file.

Show the last lines of a file and keep watching for new ones.

Simple terminal text editor. Ctrl+O to save, Ctrl+X to exit.

Search recursively for text inside files.

Set read/write/execute permissions (owner/group/others).

Change the owning user and group of a file.

Run a single command with administrator privileges.

Print the current logged-in user.

List all running processes with details.

Live view of running processes and resource usage. `q` to quit.

Ask a process to terminate gracefully. Add `-9` to force it.

Check whether a systemd service is running.

Follow live logs for a systemd service.

Show disk space usage for all mounted filesystems, human-readable.

Show memory and swap usage, human-readable.

Open a secure shell session on a remote machine.

Copy a file to a remote machine over SSH.

Sync files/directories efficiently, locally or over SSH.

Fetch just the HTTP headers for a URL — quick way to check a site is up.

Test connectivity to a host.

List listening TCP/UDP ports on this machine.

Refresh the list of available packages and versions.

Install available upgrades for installed packages.

Install a package.

Uninstall a package (keeps config files).

Extract a gzip-compressed tarball.

Create a gzip-compressed tarball from a directory.

Extract a .zip archive.