Mastering the commands on your Linux machine is an indispensable prelude to writing effective shell scripts.
This section covers the following commands:
. (See also source)
ac
adduser
agetty
agrep
ar
arch
at
autoload
awk (See also Using awk for math operations)
badblocks
banner
basename
batch
bc
bg
bind
bison
builtin
bzgrep
bzip2
cal
caller
cat
cd
chattr
chfn
chgrp
chkconfig
chmod
chown
chroot
cksum
clear
clock
cmp
col
colrm
column
comm
command
compgen
complete
compress
coproc
cp
cpio
cron
crypt
csplit
cu
cut
date
dc
dd
debugfs
declare
depmod
df
dialog
diff
diff3
diffstat
dig
dirname
dirs
disown
dmesg
doexec
dos2unix
du
dump
dumpe2fs
e2fsck
echo
egrep
enable
enscript
env
eqn
eval
exec
exit (Related topic: exit status)
expand
export
expr
factor
false
fdformat
fdisk
fg
fgrep
file
find
finger
flex
flock
fmt
fold
free
fsck
ftp
fuser
getfacl
getopt
getopts
gettext
getty
gnome-mount
grep
groff
groupmod
groups (Related topic: the $GROUPS variable)
gs
gzip
halt
hash
hdparm
head
help
hexdump
host
hostid
hostname (Related topic: the $HOSTNAME variable)
hwclock
iconv
id (Related topic: the $UID variable)
ifconfig
info
infocmp
init
insmod
install
ip
ipcalc
iwconfig
jobs
join
jot
kill
killall
last
lastcomm
lastlog
ldd
less
let
lex
lid
ln
locate
lockfile
logger
logname
logout
logrotate
look
losetup
lp
ls
lsdev
lsmod
lsof
lspci
lsusb
ltrace
lynx
lzcat
lzma
m4
mail
mailstats
mailto
make
MAKEDEV
man
mapfile
mcookie
md5sum
merge
mesg
mimencode
mkbootdisk
mkdir
mke2fs
mkfifo
mkisofs
mknod
mkswap
mktemp
mmencode
modinfo
modprobe
more
mount
msgfmt
mv
nc
netconfig
netstat
newgrp
nice
nl
nm
nmap
nohup
nslookup
objdump
od
openssl
passwd
paste
patch (Related topic: diff)
pathchk
pax
pgrep
pidof
ping
pkill
popd
pr
printenv
printf
procinfo
ps
pstree
ptx
pushd
pwd (Related topic: the $PWD variable)
quota
rcp
rdev
rdist
read
readelf
readlink
readonly
reboot
recode
renice
reset
resize
restore
rev
rlogin
rm
rmdir
rmmod
route
rpm
rpm2cpio
rsh
rsync
runlevel
run-parts
rx
rz
sar
scp
script
sdiff
sed
seq
service
set
setfacl
setquota
setserial
setterm
sha1sum
shar
shopt
shred
shutdown
size
skill
sleep
slocate
snice
sort
source
sox
split
sq
ssh
stat
strace
strings
strip
stty
su
sudo
sum
suspend
swapoff
swapon
sx
sync
sz
tac
tail
tar
tbl
tcpdump
tee
telinit
telnet
Tex
texexec
time
times
tmpwatch
top
touch
tput
tr
traceroute
true
tset
tsort
tty
tune2fs
type
typeset
ulimit
umask
umount
uname
unarc
unarj
uncompress
unexpand
uniq
units
unlzma
unrar
unset
unsq
unzip
uptime
usbmodules
useradd
userdel
usermod
users
usleep
uucp
uudecode
uuencode
uux
vacation
vdir
vmstat
vrfy
w
wait
wall
watch
wc
wget
whatis
whereis
which
who
whoami
whois
write
xargs
yacc
yes
zcat
zdiff
zdump
zegrep
zfgrep
zgrep
zip