Common Linux Commands

By Atif

November 13, 2024

Here is a list of most frequently used Linux commands

Trying to find the right Linux shell command for your VPS on the internet is time consuming. I often find myself looking for the same commands again and again. To fix this, I have created a list of most common Linux commands for my self that is easily accessible. It’s my Linux Shell Commands Cheat Sheet. I will keep adding to this list over the time and hope fully it will keep expanding and will benefit some of you as well.

Copy files and folders in Linux with shell commands

One of the most common Linux command is “cp” command that helps copy files or folders. Use the “cp” copy command followed by the target file/folder which is followed by the destination file/folder.

cp -option source_path destination_path

Copy a directory to another directory

cp -r /home/test /home/test2/

Copy all the files from a directory to another directory

cp -r /home/test/* /home/test2/

Move files and folders in Linux with shell commands

To move files and folders in Linux Bash, you can use the mv command. Here’s the basic syntax:

mv source_path destination_path

Move a single file

mv /home/index.html /home/home.html

Note: moving within the same folder renames the file so ‘mv’ command is also used for renaming files and folders

Move a single file to different location

mv /home/website_1/index.html /home/website_2/index.html

File is moved from website_1 folder to website_2 folder

Move a folder to different location

mv /home/website_1/images /home/website_2/

Images folder is moved from website_1 folder to website_2 folder

Move a folder to different location and rename it

mv /home/website_1/images /home/website_2/images2

Images folder is moved from website_1 folder to website_2 folder and renamed to images2

Move a multiple folders to different location

cd /home/website_1

mv images css js /home/website_2/

Images, js and css folders are moved from website_1 folder to website_2 folder

Move all files and folders from one location to another location

mv /home/website_1/* /home/webstie_2

All files and folders are moved from website_1 folder to website_2 folder

Use -i option to prompt if file folder already exists

mv -i /home/website_1/* /home/webstie_2

If a file or folder already exists at the destination it will prompt for confirmation

Zip and Unzip files and directories in Linux with shell commands

Compressing/uncompressing files and folder is very common when moving content or migrating websites. Zip and unzip is one of the most common methods to compress and move data.

How to Install Zip and Unzip on Centos/RedHat

yum install zip unzip

How to Install Zip and Unzip on Ubuntu

apt install zip unzip

Compress files and directories with Zip command

zip – r <compressed file name> <file or directory that need to be compressed>

Compress a file with Zip

zip -r /root/movie.zip /home/website_1/media/movie.mpeg

This will compress the file movie.mpeg and put it under /root directory as movie.zip

Compress a folder with Zip

zip -r /root/website1.zip /home/website_1

This will compress the contents of website_1 directory and put it under /root directory as website1.zip

Remove files and directories

You can easily delete files and folders using the rm command

Remove a file

rm filename.ext

Remove multiple files

rm filename.ext filename.txt filename.png

Remove a directory and all of it’s contents using -r

rm -r directoryName

Force remove a directory using -f to remove write protected files

rm -rf directoryName

Remove everything within the directory you are in

rm -rf *

Remove every file with a certain extention

rm *.txt