Top 50 Linux Commands You Must Know

Linux is a powerful and versatile operating system, and mastering its command line interface (CLI) can significantly boost productivity. Here’s a list of the top 50 Linux commands every user should know.

1. Basic Commands

pwd – Print the current working directory.
```
 pwd
```
ls – List files and directories.
```
 ls -l
```
cd – Change directory.
```
 cd /home/user/Documents
```
mkdir – Create a new directory.
```
 mkdir my_folder
```
rmdir – Remove an empty directory.
```
 rmdir my_folder
```
rm – Remove files or directories.
```
 rm -r folder_name
```
cp – Copy files and directories.
```
 cp file1.txt file2.txt
```
mv – Move or rename files and directories.
```
 mv old_name.txt new_name.txt
```
touch – Create an empty file.
```
 touch newfile.txt
```
find – Search for files in a directory hierarchy.
```
find /home -name filename.txt
```

2. File and Directory Permissions

chmod – Change file permissions.
```
chmod 755 file.sh
```
chown – Change file ownership.
```
chown user:group file.txt
```
ls -l – View file permissions.
```
ls -l file.txt
```

3. Process Management

ps – Display currently running processes.
```
ps aux
```
top – Show real-time system processes.
```
top
```
htop – Interactive process viewer (if installed).
```
htop
```
kill – Terminate a process.
```
kill PID
```
pkill – Kill processes by name.
```
pkill process_name
```

4. Networking Commands

ping – Check network connectivity.
```
ping google.com
```
ifconfig – Display network configuration (deprecated, use ip).
```
ifconfig
```
ip a – Show IP address configuration.
```
ip a
```
netstat – Display network connections.
```
netstat -tulnp
```
curl – Transfer data from URLs.
```
curl https://example.com
```

5. Disk Management

df – Show disk space usage.
```
df -h
```
du – Show directory size.
```
du -sh folder_name
```
mount – Mount a filesystem.
```
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
```
umount – Unmount a filesystem.
```
umount /mnt
```
fsck – Check and repair filesystem errors.
```
fsck /dev/sda1
```

6. User Management

whoami – Show current user.
who – Show logged-in users.
useradd – Add a new user.
```
sudo useradd newuser
```
passwd – Change user password.
```
passwd
```
groupadd – Add a new group.
```
sudo groupadd newgroup
```

7. System Monitoring and Logs

uptime – Show system uptime.
free – Display memory usage.
dmesg – Show system boot logs.
journalctl – View system logs.
history – Show command history.
clear – Clear terminal screen.

8. Package Management

apt (Debian-based systems)
```
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
```
yum (RHEL-based systems)
```
sudo yum install package_name
```
dnf (Fedora-based systems)
```
sudo dnf install package_name
```
pacman (Arch-based systems)
```
sudo pacman -S package_name
```
snap – Install snap packages.
```
sudo snap install package_name
```

9. Compression and Archiving

tar – Compress and extract tar files.
```
tar -cvf archive.tar folder_name
```
zip – Create zip archive.
```
zip archive.zip file.txt
```
unzip – Extract zip files.
```
unzip archive.zip
```

10. Miscellaneous Commands

echo – Print a message.
```
echo "Hello, Linux!"
```
cat – Display file contents.
```
cat file.txt
```
nano / vim – Edit text files.
```
nano file.txt
```