Linux Commands Cheat Sheet: 50 Commands Every Developer Needs

Whether you're managing servers, developing software, or just getting started with Linux, these 50 commands will cover 90% of your daily needs.

File & Directory Operations

# Navigation
pwd                    # Print working directory
cd /path/to/dir        # Change directory
cd ~                   # Go to home directory
cd -                   # Go to previous directory

# Listing
ls -la                 # List all files with details
ls -lh                 # Human-readable file sizes
tree -L 2              # Directory tree (2 levels deep)

# File Operations
cp source dest         # Copy file
cp -r dir1 dir2        # Copy directory recursively
mv old new             # Move or rename
rm file                # Delete file
rm -rf directory       # Delete directory (careful!)
mkdir -p a/b/c         # Create nested directories
touch newfile.txt      # Create empty file

File Content

cat file.txt           # Display entire file
less file.txt          # Paginated view (q to quit)
head -20 file.txt      # First 20 lines
tail -20 file.txt      # Last 20 lines
tail -f log.txt        # Follow file in real-time
wc -l file.txt         # Count lines
diff file1 file2       # Compare files

Search & Find

# Find files
find . -name "*.js"                  # Find by name
find . -type f -size +100M           # Files over 100MB
find . -mtime -7                     # Modified in last 7 days

# Search content
grep "pattern" file.txt              # Search in file
grep -r "TODO" --include="*.py" .    # Recursive search
grep -n "error" log.txt              # Show line numbers
grep -c "error" log.txt              # Count matches

Process Management

ps aux                 # All running processes
ps aux | grep node     # Find specific process
top                    # Real-time process monitor
htop                   # Better process monitor
kill PID               # Terminate process
kill -9 PID            # Force kill
jobs                   # List background jobs
bg / fg                # Background / foreground

Networking

curl https://api.example.com         # HTTP request
curl -X POST -d "data" url           # POST request
wget https://example.com/file.zip    # Download file
ping google.com                      # Test connectivity
netstat -tulpn                       # Open ports
ss -tulpn                            # Modern port listing
ip addr show                         # Network interfaces

Disk & Memory

df -h                  # Disk usage by partition
du -sh *               # Size of each item in directory
du -sh . --max-depth=1 # Folder sizes
free -h                # Memory usage
lsblk                  # Block devices

User & Permissions

chmod 755 file         # Set permissions (rwxr-xr-x)
chmod +x script.sh     # Make executable
chown user:group file  # Change ownership
whoami                 # Current user
sudo command           # Run as root

Text Processing

sort file.txt          # Sort lines
sort -u file.txt       # Sort unique
uniq                   # Remove duplicates
cut -d"," -f1,3 data   # Extract columns
awk '{print $1}' file  # Print first column
sed 's/old/new/g' file # Find & replace
tr 'A-Z' 'a-z'        # Transform characters

Compression

tar -czf archive.tar.gz dir/   # Create .tar.gz
tar -xzf archive.tar.gz        # Extract .tar.gz
zip -r archive.zip dir/         # Create .zip
unzip archive.zip               # Extract .zip

Pro Tips

# Command history
history                # Show command history
Ctrl+R                 # Search history
!!                     # Repeat last command
!$                     # Last argument of previous command

# Piping & Redirection
command > file         # Output to file (overwrite)
command >> file        # Append to file
command 2>&1           # Redirect stderr to stdout
command1 | command2    # Pipe output to next command

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