# [ Linux Essential Operations ] ( CheatSheet )

1. File and Directory Operations

● List Files and Directories: ls

● Change Directory: cd /path/to/directory
● Print Working Directory: pwd
● Create a New Directory: mkdir directory_name
● Remove a Directory: rmdir directory_name
● Create a New File: touch filename
● Copy Files or Directories: cp source destination
● Move or Rename Files or Directories: mv source destination
● Delete Files: rm filename
● Delete Directories and Their Contents: rm -r directory_name

2. File Viewing and Manipulation

● Display File Content: cat filename

● Display the Beginning of Files: head filename
● Display the End of Files: tail filename
● Page Through Text Files: less filename
● Edit Files (using nano editor): nano filename
● Edit Files (using vi/vim editor): vi/vim filename
● Search Text Within Files: grep 'search_string' filename
● Find and Replace Text in File (using sed): sed -i
's/original/replacement/g' filename
● Count Words, Lines, and Characters: wc filename
● awk for Pattern Scanning and Processing: awk '/pattern/ {action}'
file
● sed for Stream Editing: sed 's/old/new/g' file
● join for Joining Lines on a Common Field: join file1 file2

3. Permissions and Ownership

● Change File/Directory Permissions: chmod permissions filename

● Change File/Directory Ownership: chown user:group filename

By: Waleed Mousa

 ● Change Group Ownership: chgrp group filename
● View File Permissions and Ownership: ls -l filename
● umask for Setting Default Permissions: umask 022
● setfacl for Setting File ACLs: setfacl -m u:username:rwx filename

4. Process Management

● Display Active Processes: ps

● Display Active Processes (detailed): ps aux
● Kill a Process by PID: kill pid
● Kill a Process by Name: pkill process_name
● Start a Process in the Background: command &
● Bring a Background Process to Foreground: fg
● Stop a Process Temporarily: Ctrl + Z

5. System Information and Performance Monitoring

● Display Current Date and Time: date

● Display Disk Usage: df
● Display Disk Space Used by Directory: du /path/to/directory
● Display Memory Usage: free
● Monitor System Activity (real-time): top or htop
● Display System Information: uname -a
● Display Kernel Version: uname -r
● Display CPU Information: lscpu
● Display PCI Devices: lspci

6. Networking

● Display Network Configuration: ifconfig

● Ping a Host to Check Connectivity: ping hostname_or_ip
● Display Routing Table: route
● Network Scanning and Host Discovery: nmap ip_address
● Download Files from the Internet: wget url
● Transfer Files Over SSH: scp source user@host:destination

7. Package Management (Debian-based systems)

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 ● Update Package Index: sudo apt update
● Upgrade Packages: sudo apt upgrade
● Install a Package: sudo apt install package_name
● Remove a Package: sudo apt remove package_name
● Search for a Package: apt search keyword

8. Package Management (RPM-based systems)

● Update Package Index: sudo yum check-update

● Upgrade Packages: sudo yum update
● Install a Package: sudo yum install package_name
● Remove a Package: sudo yum remove package_name
● Search for a Package: yum search keyword

9. File Compression and Archiving

● Compress Files (tar): tar czvf archive_name.tar.gz

/path/to/directory
● Extract Files (tar): tar xzvf archive_name.tar.gz
● Compress Files (zip): zip -r archive_name.zip /path/to/directory
● Extract Files (unzip): unzip archive_name.zip

10. Text Processing

● Sort Lines in Text: sort filename

● Compare Two Files: diff file1 file2
● Merge Lines of Two Files: paste file1 file2
● Display Line Numbers: nl filename
● Cut Portions of Each Line: cut -d'delimiter' -f fields filename

11. Disk and File System Management

● Check Disk Space: df -h

● Check Inode Usage: df -i
● Display Mounted File Systems: mount | column -t
● Check File System Disk Space Usage: du -sh
● Format a File System: mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdxn
● Check and Repair a File System: fsck /dev/sdxn

By: Waleed Mousa

12. User and Group Management

● Add a New User: useradd username

● Delete a User: userdel username
● Change User Password: passwd username
● Add a New Group: groupadd groupname
● Delete a Group: groupdel groupname
● Add User to Group: usermod -aG groupname username
● usermod for Modifying User Account: usermod -aG groupname username
● groupadd for Adding a New Group: groupadd groupname
● groupdel for Deleting a Group: groupdel groupname
● groups for Displaying User Groups: groups username
● id for User Identification: id username

13. System Services and Daemons

● Start a Service: systemctl start service_name

● Stop a Service: systemctl stop service_name
● Restart a Service: systemctl restart service_name
● Enable a Service to Start on Boot: systemctl enable service_name
● Disable a Service from Starting on Boot: systemctl disable
service_name
● Check Service Status: systemctl status service_name

14. System Logs and Monitoring

● Display System Log Messages: dmesg

● Tail a Log File: tail -f /var/log/syslog
● Search Through Log Files: grep 'search_term' /var/log/filename
● Monitor System Logs in Real-time: journalctl -f

15. Security and Permissions

● Add User to sudoers: usermod -aG sudo username

● Generate SSH Keys: ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096
● Set up a Firewall with UFW: ufw enable and ufw allow 22/tcp

By: Waleed Mousa

16. SSH and Remote Connection

● SSH to a Remote Server: ssh user@hostname

● Copy Files Over SSH: scp file user@hostname:/path
● SSH Port Forwarding: ssh -L local_port:remote_address:remote_port
user@ssh_server
● Terminate an SSH Session: exit

17. Scripting and Automation

● Executing a Shell Script: bash script.sh

● Setting Up a Cron Job: crontab -e
● Running a Command at a Specific Time: at now + 5 minutes -f
script.sh
● Writing Bash Scripts: #!/bin/bash at the start of scripts
● Making Scripts Executable: chmod +x script.sh
● Running Scripts at Specific Times with Cron: 0 * * * *
/path/to/script.sh

18. Disk and Storage Management

● List Block Devices: lsblk

● Display Disk Usage: du -h
● Monitor Disk I/O: iotop
● Create a Swap File: fallocate -l 1G /swapfile
● Mount a File System: mount /dev/sdxn /mnt/directory

19. Networking and Firewalls

● Display Network Interfaces: ip addr show

● Scan Network Ports: nmap -sT localhost
● Display Open Network Connections: netstat -tuln
● Configure IP Tables (Firewall): iptables -L
● Network Packet Capture (sniffing): tcpdump -i eth0

20. Text Processing and Analysis

● awk for Text Processing: awk '{print $1}' filename

By: Waleed Mousa

 ● sed for Stream Editing: sed 's/old/new/g' filename
● tr for Character Transformation: tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]' <
filename
● uniq for Uniqueness in Text Lines: sort filename | uniq
● diff for File Differences: diff file1 file2
● patch for Applying Differences: patch < diff_file

21. Archive and Compression

● tar for Archiving Files: tar cvf archive_name.tar directory/

● gzip for Compression: gzip filename
● gunzip for Decompression: gunzip filename.gz
● zip for ZIP Archiving: zip archive_name.zip files
● unzip for Extracting ZIP Archives: unzip archive_name.zip

22. Disk and Partition Management

● fdisk for Disk Partitioning: fdisk /dev/sdx

● mkfs for Making File Systems: mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sdxn
● e2fsck for File System Checking: e2fsck /dev/sdxn
● mount for Mounting File Systems: mount /dev/sdxn /mnt/point
● umount for Unmounting File Systems: umount /mnt/point
● df for Disk Space of File Systems: df -h
● du for Disk Usage of Files and Directories: du -sh /path/to/dir

23. Process Monitoring and Control

● ps for Active Processes: ps aux

● top for Real-time Process Monitoring: top
● htop for Interactive Process Monitoring: htop
● kill for Killing Processes: kill pid
● killall for Killing Processes by Name: killall processname
● nohup for Running Commands Persistently: nohup command &
● nice for Setting Process Priority: nice -n 19 command
● renice for Changing Process Priority: renice 19 -p pid

24. SSH and Remote Management

By: Waleed Mousa

 ● ssh for Remote Login: ssh user@hostname
● scp for Secure Copy over SSH: scp local_file
user@hostname:/remote/path
● sftp for Secure File Transfer: sftp user@hostname
● ssh-keygen for SSH Key Generation: ssh-keygen -t rsa
● ssh-copy-id for Copying SSH Key to Server: ssh-copy-id
user@hostname

25. System Services and Job Scheduling

● service for Managing Services: service nginx start

● systemctl for Systemd Management: systemctl status nginx
● crontab for Scheduling Cron Jobs: crontab -e
● at for One-time Scheduled Jobs: echo "command" | at now + 2 hours

26. Monitoring and Performance

● vmstat for Virtual Memory Statistics: vmstat 1

● iostat for Input/Output Statistics: iostat
● lsof for Open Files and Ports: lsof -i
● strace for System Call Tracing: strace -p pid
● netstat for Network Statistics: netstat -tulnp
● ss for Socket Statistics: ss -tuln

27. System Information and Hardware Details

● uname for System Information: uname -a

● lscpu for CPU Architecture Information: lscpu
● lsblk for Block Devices Information: lsblk
● lsmem for Memory Information: lsmem
● lsusb for USB Devices Information: lsusb
● lspci for PCI Devices Information: lspci
● hwinfo for Detailed Hardware Information: hwinfo --short

28. Logs and Auditing

● tail for Viewing Log Files: tail -f /var/log/syslog

● journalctl for Systemd Logs: journalctl -u nginx

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 ● dmesg for Kernel Messages: dmesg | grep something
● auditd for Auditing System Events: auditctl -l

29. Backup and Restore

● rsync for File Transfer and Synchronization: rsync -av /source/

/destination/
● dd for Disk Cloning and Backup: dd if=/dev/sdx of=/dev/sdy
● tar for Archiving and Backup: tar cvzf backup.tar.gz
/important/data
● restore for Restoring Files from Backup: restore -if backup.tar.gz

30. Virtualization and Containers

● docker for Managing Containers: docker run image_name

● docker-compose for Multi-container Docker Applications:
docker-compose up
● virsh for Managing KVM/QEMU Virtual Machines: virsh list --all
● virt-manager for Virtual Machine Management: virt-manager

31. Security and Encryption

● openssl for SSL/TLS Operations: openssl s_client -connect

example.com:443
● gpg for Encryption and Signing: gpg --encrypt --recipient 'name'
file
● fail2ban for Intrusion Prevention: fail2ban-client status sshd

32. Custom Commands and Aliases

● Creating Aliases for Commonly Used Commands: alias ll='ls -la'

● Creating Functions in .bashrc or .bash_profile: function extract()
{ tar xvf $1; }

33. Performance Tuning and Kernel Parameters

● sysctl for Runtime Kernel Parameters: sysctl -a

● tuned for System Tuning Profiles: tuned-adm active

By: Waleed Mousa

34. Networking and Troubleshooting

● ifconfig for Configuring Network Interfaces: ifconfig eth0

● iwconfig for Configuring Wireless Networks: iwconfig wlan0
● dhclient for Obtaining IP Address via DHCP: dhclient eth0
● traceroute for Tracing Network Path: traceroute url_to_website
● nslookup for DNS Querying: nslookup url_to_website
● host for DNS Lookup: host url_to_website
● dig for DNS Lookup and Diagnosis: dig url_to_website
● iptables for Firewall Configuration: iptables -L -n -v
● ip for Advanced IP Addressing and Routing: ip addr add 192.168.1.5
dev eth0
● traceroute for Tracing Network Path: traceroute url_to_website
● curl for URL Transfer: curl -O url_to_website
● wget for Non-interactive Download: wget url_to_website

By: Waleed Mousa