Linux Commands Quick Reference
Terminal commands for files, viewing and searching text, permissions, processes, networking, archives and packages.
7 sections · 55 snippets · updated Oct 14, 2026
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Files & directories
Move around and manage files.
TaskCode
- Where am I / list files
- Change directory
- Create a directory
- Create an empty file
- Copy
- Move / rename
- Delete
- Symbolic link
- Find files
- Disk usage
Viewing & searching text
Read files and search inside them.
TaskCode
- Print a file
- Page through a file
- First / last lines
- Follow a log
- Search text
- Count lines / words
- Sort and de-duplicate
- Cut columns
- Find and replace in a file
- Compare files
Pipes & redirection
Connect commands together.
TaskCode
- Write output to a file
- Redirect errors
- Pipe output into another command
- Run if the previous succeeded
- Run in the background
- Use output as an argument
- Run a command on many files
Permissions & users
Who can do what.
TaskCode
- Make a script executable
- Set permissions numerically
- Change owner
- Run as administrator
- Who am I
- Switch user
Processes & system
What's running and how the machine is doing.
TaskCode
- List processes
- Find a process
- Stop a process
- What's using a port
- Memory / uptime
- Services (systemd)
- Environment variables
- Command history
Networking
Connections and downloads.
TaskCode
- Make an HTTP request
- Download a file
- Check connectivity
- My IP addresses
- DNS lookup
- SSH into a server
- Copy files over SSH
Archives & packages
Compress files and install software.
TaskCode
- Create a .tar.gz
- Extract a .tar.gz
- Zip / unzip
- Install (Debian/Ubuntu)
- Install (Fedora)
- Install (Arch)
- Get help for a command