Linux Commands Cheat Sheet

This linux cheatsheet organises the most-used bash commands and terminal commands by task area — from navigating the filesystem to writing shell scripts and managing services. Use it as a linux commands list you can scan at a glance during development or system administration work. Each section pairs a reference table with realistic, copy-pasteable code examples.

File System Navigation and Linux Commands List

These are the foundational terminal commands for moving around the filesystem and managing files. Every linux tutorial starts here.

## List the 10 most recently modified files
ls -lt | head -11

## Create a standard project directory structure
mkdir -p project/{src,tests,docs,scripts,config}

## Safely preview files before deleting
ls /tmp/*.log && rm /tmp/*.log

File Search and Filtering

These bash commands locate files and content across the filesystem — a skill every linux commands list should cover in depth.

For pattern-based searches in text files, the Regex Cheat Sheet pairs well with grep and sed — it covers the full regex syntax used across these tools.

## Find .log files larger than 100 MB under /var/log
find /var/log -name "*.log" -size +100M

## Recursive search for "ERROR" in Python source files only
grep -r "ERROR" --include="*.py" .

## Show the 10 largest subdirectories under /var
du -h /var/* | sort -rh | head -10

File Permissions and Ownership

Linux uses a read/write/execute permission model per owner, group, and others. Understanding this model is critical for both security and correct application behaviour.

Permission octal quick reference:

## Make a script executable by its owner
chmod +x deploy.sh

## Correct permissions for a web document root
find /var/www -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;
find /var/www -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

## Transfer ownership to the web server user recursively
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html

Process and Job Management

These terminal commands inspect, control, and schedule work on the running system.

## Gracefully stop a named process
kill $(pgrep nginx)

## Start a long job in the background and record its PID
nohup python3 train_model.py > training.log 2>&1 &
echo "Job PID: $!"

## Show the five processes consuming the most memory
ps aux --sort=-%mem | head -6

Text Processing with Bash Commands

These bash commands handle log analysis, data wrangling, and stream manipulation — the core of shell scripting work.

## Count unique IP addresses in a web server access log
awk '{print $1}' access.log | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head -20

## Replace a hostname across all nginx virtual-host configs
sed -i 's/old.example.com/new.example.com/g' /etc/nginx/sites-available/*.conf

## Extract the second column from a CSV, skipping the header row
tail -n +2 data.csv | cut -d',' -f2

Networking and Remote Access

This section of the linux commands cheatsheet covers connectivity diagnostics, file transfer, and remote operations.

For a deep dive into HTTP from the shell, the curl Command: The Complete Guide for Developers covers every flag with real examples.

## Find which process is listening on port 3000
ss -tlnp | grep ':3000'

## Call a JSON API and pretty-print the response
curl -s -X POST https://api.example.com/data \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"key": "value"}' | python3 -m json.tool

## Sync project files to a remote server, excluding large directories
rsync -avz --exclude='.git' --exclude='node_modules' \
  ./myproject/ deploy@192.168.1.10:/var/www/myproject/

System Services and Monitoring

Systemd is the standard init system on modern Linux. These terminal commands manage services and track system resource health.

## Auto-restart nginx if it is not running
systemctl is-active nginx || systemctl restart nginx

## Stream live logs from an application service
journalctl -u myapp.service -f

## Watch memory and load update every 2 seconds
watch -n 2 'free -h && uptime'

Archive, Compression, and Package Management

Managing archives and packages are essential day-to-day bash commands on any Linux system.

## Create a timestamped backup archive
tar -czf "backup-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).tar.gz" /opt/myapp

## Extract one specific file from a large archive
tar -xzf archive.tar.gz path/to/config.conf

## Install a package and immediately check its version
apt install -y htop && htop --version

Bash Scripting and Shell Productivity Tips

Mastering these features of the bash shell turns the terminal into a fast, scriptable automation environment. This section doubles as a compact linux tutorial on scripting essentials.

For comprehensive language reference, the GNU Bash Manual is the authoritative guide to all shell built-ins and scripting constructs. The Linux man pages document every command and system call in precise detail.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail

## Minimal backup script with safe defaults
BACKUP_DIR="${BACKUP_DIR:-/var/backups/myapp}"
APP_DIR="/opt/myapp"
TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)

mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
tar -czf "${BACKUP_DIR}/backup-${TIMESTAMP}.tar.gz" "$APP_DIR"
echo "Backup complete: ${BACKUP_DIR}/backup-${TIMESTAMP}.tar.gz"

## Loop over a list of hosts and check a service on each
for host in web1 web2 web3; do
  ssh "$host" 'systemctl is-active nginx && echo OK || echo FAILED'
done

## Read a file line by line safely
while IFS= read -r line; do
  echo "Processing: $line"
done < servers.txt

## Check whether a tool is installed before using it
command -v docker >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo "Docker found" || echo "Docker not installed"

This linux commands cheatsheet covers the bash commands and terminal commands that developers and sysadmins reach for every day. For version control at the command line, the Git Commands Cheat Sheet is a natural companion. If you run containers on Linux, the Docker Commands Cheat Sheet extends this reference into container and image management.