Linux Basic Commands: A Practical Cheat Sheet for Beginners

1) Navigation & Orientation

Move around the filesystem and learn where you are.

# print working directory
pwd

# list files (long, human sizes, show dotfiles)
ls -alh

# change directory (.. = up one; - = previous)
cd ..
cd -      # toggle to previous dir
cd /etc   # absolute path
cd ~/bin  # into your home/bin

# see directory tree (install 'tree' first on some distros)
tree -L 2

# show disk usage for current dir
du -sh .

# show free space by mount
df -h

If you’re new to structure and speed, pair this with Setting Up Clean Dev Environments.

2) Files & Directories

Create, copy, move, and remove—safely.

# create files and directories
touch notes.txt
mkdir -p src/components

# copy (file → file, or into dir)
cp file.txt backup.txt
cp file.txt docs/

# move / rename
mv README.md README.old.md
mv *.log logs/

# remove (prompt before delete)
rm -i file.txt
rm -rI old_project/   # 'I' prompts once if many files

# safer delete: send to trash if you have 'trash-cli'
trash-put file.txt

⚠️ Danger zone: rm -rf / or a bad wildcard can wipe systems. Prefer rm -rI (capital i) to get a one-time bulk prompt.

For deeper control over ownership and modes, read Linux File Permissions.

3) View & Edit Text

Peek at files without opening a full editor.

# print entire file or concatenate
cat notes.txt

# first / last lines
head -n 20 access.log
tail -n 50 access.log
tail -f /var/log/syslog      # follow updates

# page through with navigation
less bigfile.txt             # /pattern to search, q to quit

# quick edits (nano is beginner-friendly)
nano notes.txt

4) Search: Files & Inside Files

# find files by name (case-insensitive)
find . -iname "*.png"

# find by type and size
find . -type f -size +50M

# run an action on results (here: show human sizes)
find . -type f -name "*.log" -exec du -h {} +

# text search with ripgrep (fast) or grep
rg "ERROR|WARN" -n
grep -Rin "api_key" .

# locate using the system index (run 'sudo updatedb' occasionally)
locate nginx.conf

5) Permissions & Ownership

Know who can read/write/execute—and how to change it.

# show long listing with modes and owners
ls -l

# change permission (symbolic)
chmod u+rw,go-r file.txt

# change permission (octal: rwx = 7, rw- = 6, r-x = 5, r-- = 4)
chmod 644 file.txt
chmod 755 scripts/run.sh

# change owner / group (requires sudo)
sudo chown mason:mason file.txt

# add execute bit to a script
chmod +x deploy.sh

New to modes and sticky bits? Walk through examples in Linux File Permissions.

6) Processes & Jobs

# list processes (wide + tree)
ps aux | less
pstree -p | less

# top / htop for live view (install 'htop' first)
top
htop

# kill by PID or by name (gently, then force)
kill 12345
pkill -f "node server"
kill -9 12345   # SIGKILL (last resort)

# run jobs in background / bring to foreground
sleep 60 &        # background
jobs
fg %1             # bring job 1 to foreground
Ctrl+Z            # suspend current job
bg %1             # resume in background

System health & metrics: see System Monitoring.

7) Networking Basics

# show interfaces and addresses
ip a

# check DNS / reachability
ping -c 4 example.com
dig example.com +short
nslookup example.com

# open ports (requires 'ss' or 'netstat' pkg)
ss -tulpn | less   # listening sockets
curl -I https://example.com   # HTTP headers

More commands (SSH, traceroute, firewall) live in Linux Networking.

8) Packages (Install, Update, Remove)

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install <pkg>
apt search <term>
apt show <pkg>
sudo apt remove <pkg>
sudo apt autoremove

sudo pacman -Syu             # sync + full upgrade
sudo pacman -S <pkg>
sudo pacman -Rns <pkg>
pacman -Ss <term>
pacman -Qi <pkg>

Package archives & tarballs explained here: Working with Tarballs and Package Management.

9) Compression & Archiving

# create a gzipped tar archive
tar -czf site-backup.tgz /var/www/site

# extract into current directory
tar -xzf site-backup.tgz

# zip / unzip
zip -r site.zip site/
unzip site.zip -d ./site

10) Disk & System Info

# disk space by filesystem / inode usage
df -h
df -i

# per-dir sizes (top level)
du -h --max-depth=1

# memory / CPU
free -h
lscpu

# OS release and kernel
cat /etc/os-release
uname -a

11) Remote: SSH, SCP & Rsync

# login to a server
ssh user@host

# copy file to server (local → remote)
scp ./backup.tgz user@host:/home/user/

# sync a folder (dry run first!)
rsync -av --dry-run ./public/ user@host:/var/www/site/
rsync -av --delete ./public/ user@host:/var/www/site/

12) Shell Productivity (Pipes, History, Aliases)

# chain commands with pipes
journalctl -u nginx --no-pager | rg "error|warn" -n

# sort / unique with counts
cut -d" " -f1 access.log | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head

# history search (press Ctrl+R, then type)
# or grep it explicitly
history | grep ssh

# quick aliases (add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc)
alias ll='ls -alh'
alias gs='git status'

# variables & export
export EDITOR=nano

When you’re ready, level up with Shell Scripting.

13) Text Processing: cut, sort, uniq, awk, sed

# CSV: 2nd column, unique domains sorted by frequency
cut -d, -f2 emails.csv | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr | head

# replace in-place (create a backup with .bak)
sed -i.bak 's/http:/https:/g' *.html

# extract 1st and 3rd fields where 5th field > 100
awk -F, '$5 > 100 {print $1, $3}' data.csv

See official docs for behavior details: GNU Coreutils Manual.

14) Logs & Troubleshooting

# system log (journald)
sudo journalctl -xe          # recent errors with detail
sudo journalctl -u nginx     # service-specific logs

# grep recent kernel messages
dmesg | tail -50

# who is using a file/port
lsof /var/log/syslog
sudo lsof -i :443

15) Help: man, --help, info

# quick overview
tool --help

# full manual (q to quit, /pattern to search)
man tool
man 1 ls     # specify section

# deeper docs for bash features
info bash

Online references: Linux man-pages · GNU Bash Manual.

Quick Reference (Copy-Paste)

Next Steps

Keep momentum with these focused deep dives from my Linux series:

• Package Management — repos, pinning, and policies.
• Linux Networking — SSH, firewalls, diagnostics.
• System Monitoring — live metrics and alerting.
• Linux File Permissions — umask, sticky bit, ACLs.
• Setting Up Clean Dev Environments — make mistakes safe.