A-Z Linux Commands: Comprehensive Overview with Examples

Creating an overview of A to Z Linux commands with examples can be quite extensive. Here is a comprehensive list of common Linux commands along with their descriptions and examples. Note that this is not an exhaustive list but covers many of the frequently used commands.

Linux commands starts with “A”

• alias: Creates an alias for a command.

alias ll='ls -la'

• awk: Pattern scanning and processing language.

awk '{print $1}' file.txt

B

• basename: Strips directory and suffix from filenames.

basename /path/to/file.txt

• bash: GNU Bourne-Again Shell.

bash script.sh

C

• cat: Concatenate and display files.

cat file.txt

• cd: Change the shell working directory.

cd /path/to/directory

• chmod: Change file modes or Access Control Lists.

chmod 755 file.sh

• chown: Change file owner and group.

chown user:group file.txt

• cp: Copy files and directories.

cp source.txt destination.txt

• cron: Daemon to execute scheduled commands.

crontab -e

D

• date: Display or set the system date and time.

date

• df: Report file system disk space usage.

df -h

• diff: Compare files line by line.

diff file1.txt file2.txt

• du: Estimate file space usage.

du -sh directory/

E

• echo: Display a line of text.

echo "Hello, World!"

• exit: Exit the shell or a script.

exit

F

• find: Search for files in a directory hierarchy.

find /path -name "filename"

• ftp: File Transfer Protocol client.

ftp ftp.example.com

G

• grep: Print lines matching a pattern.

grep "pattern" file.txt

• gzip: Compress files.

gzip file.txt

H

• head: Output the first part of files.

head -n 10 file.txt

• history: Command History.

history

I

• ifconfig: Configure a network interface.

ifconfig eth0

• iptables: Administration tool for IPv4 packet filtering and NAT.

iptables -L

J

• jobs: Display status of jobs in the current session.

jobs

K

• kill: Terminate a process.

kill 1234

• killall: Kill processes by name.

killall processname

L

• less: View file contents, allowing navigation.

less file.txt

• ln: Create hard and symbolic links.

ln -s source.txt link.txt

• ls: List directory contents.

ls -la

M

• man: Display manual pages.

man ls

• mkdir: Create directories.

mkdir new_directory

• mount: Mount a file system.

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

• mv: Move or rename files and directories.

mv oldname.txt newname.txt

Linux commands starts with “N”

• nano: Simple text editor.

nano file.txt

• netstat: Print network connections, routing tables, interface statistics, masquerade connections, and multicast memberships.

netstat -an

O

• openssl: Toolkit for SSL/TLS.

openssl genpkey -algorithm RSA -out private_key.pem

P

• passwd: Update a user’s authentication tokens (password).

passwd

• ping: Send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network hosts.

ping example.com

• ps: Report a snapshot of current processes.

ps aux

Q

• quota: Display disk usage and limits.

quota -u username

R

• rm: Remove files or directories.

rm file.txt

• rmdir: Remove empty directories.

rmdir empty_directory

• rsync: Remote file and directory synchronization.

rsync -avz source/ destination/

Linux commands starts with “S”

• scp: Secure copy (remote file copy program).

scp file.txt user@remote:/path/

• sed: Stream editor for filtering and transforming text.

sed 's/old/new/g' file.txt

• shutdown: Bring the system down.

shutdown -h now

• ssh: OpenSSH SSH client (remote login program).

ssh user@remote_host

T

• tar: Archive files.

tar -cvf archive.tar directory/

• top: Display Linux tasks.

top

• touch: Change file timestamps.

touch newfile.txt

• tr: Translate or delete characters.

echo "hello" | tr 'a-z' 'A-Z'

U

• uname: Print system information.

uname -a

• uptime: Tell how long the system has been running.

uptime

• useradd: Create a new user or update default new user information.

useradd newuser

• usermod: Modify a user account.

usermod -aG groupname username

Linux commands starts with “V”

• vi: Text editor.

vi file.txt

• vim: Vi IMproved, a programmer’s text editor.

vim file.txt

W

• wget: Non-interactive network downloader.

wget http://example.com/file.zip

• who: Show who is logged on.

who

• whoami: Print the current user id and name.

whoami

X

• xargs: Build and execute command lines from standard input.

find . -name "*.txt" | xargs grep "pattern"

Y

• yes: Output a string repeatedly until killed.

yes "text"

Linux commands starts with “Z“

• zip: Package and compress (archive) files.

zip archive.zip file1 file2

• zcat: Concatenate compressed files.

zcat file.gz

This list covers many of the commonly used commands in Linux. Each command has a basic example to demonstrate its usage. For more detailed information on any of these commands, you can use the man command followed by the command name (e.g., man ls) to read the manual page.