Linux Commands Cheat Sheet: 50 Commands Every Developer Should Know

A good Linux command-line reference isn't nice to have — it's essential. This cheatsheet covers 50 commands organized by what you're actually trying to do, from file navigation to process management to networking.

File Navigation

pwd                     # print working directory
ls -la                  # list all files with details
cd /path/to/dir         # change directory
cd ..                   # go up one level
cd -                    # go back to previous directory
find . -name "*.py"     # find files by name pattern
locate filename         # find file quickly (uses indexed db)

File Operations

cp source dest          # copy file
cp -r source dest       # copy directory recursively
mv source dest          # move or rename
rm file                 # remove file
rm -rf dir              # remove directory (DANGER — no undo)
mkdir -p a/b/c          # create nested directories
touch file              # create empty file or update timestamp
ln -s target link       # create symbolic link

Viewing and Editing Files

cat file                # print entire file
less file               # scroll through file (q to quit)
head -20 file           # first 20 lines
tail -f file            # follow file as it grows (logs)
wc -l file              # count lines
grep "pattern" file     # search for pattern
grep -r "pattern" dir   # search recursively
nano file               # simple terminal editor
vim file                # advanced editor (:q! to quit)

Permissions

chmod 755 script.sh     # rwxr-xr-x (owner full, others read+execute)
chmod +x script.sh      # make executable
chown user:group file   # change owner and group
umask 022               # set default permissions mask

Process Management

ps aux                  # list all running processes
ps aux | grep nginx     # find specific process
top                     # real-time process monitor (q to quit)
htop                    # prettier top (install separately)
kill 1234               # terminate process by PID
kill -9 1234            # force kill (SIGKILL)
pkill -f pattern        # kill by name pattern
bg                      # resume suspended job in background
fg                      # bring background job to foreground
jobs                    # list background jobs

Disk and Storage

df -h                   # disk free (human-readable)
du -sh dir              # directory size summary
du -sh * | sort -h      # size of each item, sorted
mount                   # show mounted filesystems
lsblk                   # list block devices

Networking

ping host               # test connectivity
curl -I url             # fetch headers only
curl -s url | jq        # fetch JSON and pretty-print
wget url                # download file
ssh user@host           # connect to remote server
scp file user@host:path # copy file to remote
netstat -tlnp           # listening ports
ss -tlnp                # modern alternative to netstat
lsof -i :3000           # what's using port 3000

Text Processing

sed 's/old/new/g' file  # replace all occurrences
awk '{{print $1}}' file  # print first column
sort file               # sort lines
sort -u file            # sort and deduplicate
uniq -c file            # count occurrences
cut -d',' -f1 file      # extract column 1 from CSV
tr '[:lower:]' '[:upper:]' # convert case

Compression and Archives

tar -czf archive.tar.gz dir   # create gzipped tarball
tar -xzf archive.tar.gz       # extract gzipped tarball
gzip file                     # compress single file
gunzip file.gz                # decompress
zip -r archive.zip dir        # create zip

System Info

uname -a                # kernel info
whoami                  # current user
who                     # who is logged in
uptime                  # how long system has been up
free -h                 # memory usage
date                    # current date/time
history                 # command history
!!                      # re-run last command
!$                      # last argument of previous command

Quick Reference by Task