Basic Linux Commands for Newbies

The other day one of my friends who is a Windows user asked me to basic Linux commands because he wanted to improve his IT skills. I helped him out and also decided to put together a brief list of basic Linux commands for newbies while having fantastic Latin America coffee at home.

Basic Linux Files and Navigation Commands

Command	Description
ls	List of files/directories in current directory
ls -l	Formatted listing
ls -la	Formatted listing including hidden files
cd <dir>	Change directory to <dir>(<dir> is directory name)
cd	Go to your home directory
pwd	Show current path
mkdir	Make a directory e.g. mkdir holadir
rm	Remove a file e.g. rm myfile
rm -r	Delete a directory e.g. rm -r mydirectory
cp	Copy files e.g. cp myfile yourfile
mv	Rename files e.g. mv myfile yourfile

Networking Basic Linux

Command	Description
ping	Ping a host
whois	Get whois for a domain
dig	Get DNS for a domain
wget	Download a file
wget -r <url>	Recursively download files from url
curl <url>	Output webpages from url
ssh user@host	Connect to host as user
ssh -p <port> user@host	Connect to host as user using a port
ssh -D user@host	Connect and use bind port

Viewing Processes Basic Commands

Command	Description
ps	Display current active processes
ps aux	Detailed processes output
kill pid	Kill processes id (pid)
killall <processName>	Kill all processes named <processName>

Basic Linux System Information

Command	Description
date	Show current date/time
uptime	Show system uptime
whoami	Show who you’re logged in as
w	Display who is online
du -sh	Displays readable space in GB
df	Show disk usage
uname -r	Show kernel version

Basic Linux Permissions Commands

	Description
chmod <octal file>	Change permissions of file
4	read(r)
2	write(w)
1	execute(x)
order	owner/group/world
chmod 777	rwx for everybody
chmod 755	rwx for owner, rx for group and world

Contact me if you’re confused about anything that I wrote here. Cheers.