Essential Linux Commands
File and Directory Navigation
pwd Print current working directory
ls List directory contents
ls -l List with details (permissions, size, date)
ls -a Include hidden files
cd <dir> Change directory
cd .. Go up one level
cd ~ Go to home directory
File Operations
touch file.txt Create empty file
cp src dest Copy file or directory
mv src dest Move (or rename) file or directory
rm file.txt Remove file
rm -r dir/ Remove directory recursively
mkdir newdir Create a directory
rmdir dir Remove an empty directory
Viewing Files
cat file.txt View file contents (all at once)
less file.txt View file one screen at a time
more file.txt Similar to `less`
head -n 10 file Show first 10 lines
tail -n 10 file Show last 10 lines
tail -f log.txt Live view of logs
Finding Files and Text
find . -name "file.txt" Find file by name
grep "text" file.txt Search for text in a file
grep -r "text" dir/ Search recursively
locate file.txt Fast search (needs `updatedb`)
Permissions & Ownership
chmod 755 file Change permissions
chown user:group file Change owner and group
Disk and Resource Monitoring
df -h Disk space usage (human-readable)
Essential Linux Commands
du -sh dir/ Size of directory
top Live CPU/memory usage
htop Enhanced `top` (if installed)
free -h Show memory usage
uptime System load and uptime
Package Management (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo apt update Update package list
sudo apt upgrade Upgrade installed packages
sudo apt install pkg Install a package
sudo apt remove pkg Uninstall a package
Archiving & Compression
tar -czvf file.tar.gz dir/ Compress directory
tar -xzvf file.tar.gz Extract archive
zip file.zip file1 file2 Create zip
unzip file.zip Extract zip
User Management
whoami Show current user
id Show user ID and groups
users Show logged in users
adduser newuser Add new user
passwd user Change password
Networking
ping google.com Test connectivity
wget URL Download from web
curl URL Fetch data from URL
ifconfig / ip a Show network interfaces
Process & Job Management
ps aux View running processes
kill PID Terminate a process
kill -9 PID Force kill
jobs View background jobs
bg Resume in background
fg Bring job to foreground
nohup cmd & Run immune to hangups
Essential Linux Commands
Text Editors
nano file.txt Open in Nano
vi file.txt Open in Vim
code . Open in VS Code (if installed)
Jupyter & Python-Specific
jupyter notebook Start Jupyter Notebook
jupyter lab Start Jupyter Lab
pip install package Install Python package
conda install package Install via Conda
python file.py Run a Python script
