Linux Basics: 50 Important Commands for Beginners

Hi everyone! I’m learning Linux as part of my DevOps journey, and I want to share what I’ve picked up. Linux is used in tons of servers and DevOps tools, so knowing how to use the terminal is super important. This blog is for beginners like me who want to learn the most common Linux commands. These are the commands I use a lot while working on Ubuntu, but they work on most Linux systems. Let’s get started!

Why Use the Terminal?

The terminal can feel scary at first, but it’s just a way to give your computer instructions. It’s fast and powerful, especially for DevOps tasks like managing servers or automating stuff. Below, I’ve listed 50 commonly used commands with examples to help you navigate, manage files, check system info, and more.

50 Essential Linux Commands

1. pwd - Show Current Location

What it does: Tells you the full path of the folder you’re in.
Example:

pwd

Output: /home/user/docs
This shows you’re in the docs folder.

2. ls - List Files and Folders

What it does: Shows all files and folders in the current directory.
Example:

ls

Output: file.txt folder1 folder2
Use ls -l for details or ls -a to see hidden files.

3. cd - Change Directory

What it does: Moves you to another folder.
Example:

cd docs

Moves to the docs folder. Use cd .. to go up one level or cd to go home.

4. mkdir - Create a Folder

What it does: Makes a new folder.
Example:

mkdir my_folder

Creates a folder named my_folder.

5. touch - Create a File

What it does: Creates an empty file.
Example:

touch note.txt

Creates an empty file named note.txt.

6. cat - View File Contents

What it does: Shows the contents of a file.
Example:

cat note.txt

Output: Hello, this is a note!

7. cp - Copy Files/Folders

What it does: Copies files or folders.
Example:

cp note.txt note_copy.txt

Copies note.txt to note_copy.txt. Use cp -r for folders.

8. mv - Move or Rename Files/Folders

What it does: Moves or renames files/folders.
Example:

mv note.txt docs/note.txt

Moves note.txt to the docs folder.
To rename:

mv note.txt new_note.txt

9. rm - Delete Files/Folders

What it does: Deletes files or folders.
Example:

rm note.txt

Deletes note.txt. Use rm -r for folders.

10. man - Show Command Help

What it does: Displays the manual for a command.
Example:

man ls

Shows the help page for ls.

11. echo - Print Text

What it does: Prints text to the terminal.
Example:

echo "Hello"

Output: Hello

12. nano - Edit Files

What it does: Opens a simple text editor.
Example:

nano note.txt

Opens note.txt for editing.

13. vim - Advanced Text Editor

What it does: Opens a powerful text editor.
Example:

vim note.txt

Opens note.txt. Press i to edit, :wq to save and quit.

14. clear - Clear Terminal

What it does: Clears the terminal screen.
Example:

clear

Clears all previous output.

15. whoami - Show Current User

What it does: Shows your username.
Example:

whoami

Output: user

16. uname - System Info

What it does: Shows system information.
Example:

uname -a

Output: Linux ubuntu 5.15.0-73-generic...

17. df - Check Disk Space

What it does: Shows disk usage.
Example:

df -h

Output: Shows disk space in human-readable format.

18. du - Check Folder Size

What it does: Shows the size of files/folders.
Example:

du -h docs

Shows the size of the docs folder.

19. free - Check Memory

What it does: Shows memory usage.
Example:

free -h

Shows RAM usage in a readable format.

20. top - Monitor Processes

What it does: Shows running processes and system usage.
Example:

top

Displays a live view of processes. Press q to quit.

21. ps - List Processes

What it does: Shows current processes.
Example:

ps aux

Lists all running processes.

22. kill - Stop a Process

What it does: Stops a process by its ID (PID).
Example:

kill 1234

Stops the process with PID 1234.

23. chmod - Change Permissions

What it does: Changes file/folder permissions.
Example:

chmod 755 script.sh

Gives execute permission to script.sh.

24. chown - Change Owner

What it does: Changes file/folder ownership.
Example:

chown user note.txt

Changes the owner of note.txt to user.

25. find - Search for Files

What it does: Finds files by name or type.
Example:

find /home -name note.txt

Finds note.txt in the /home directory.

26. grep - Search in Files

What it does: Searches for text inside files.
Example:

grep "error" log.txt

Finds lines with “error” in log.txt.

27. wc - Count Words/Lines

What it does: Counts lines, words, or characters.
Example:

wc -l note.txt

Shows the number of lines in note.txt.

28. sort - Sort Lines

What it does: Sorts lines in a file.
Example:

sort names.txt

Sorts the lines in names.txt.

29. uniq - Remove Duplicates

What it does: Removes duplicate lines from a sorted file.
Example:

uniq names.txt

Removes duplicates from names.txt.

30. cut - Extract Columns

What it does: Extracts specific columns from a file.
Example:

cut -d',' -f1 data.csv

Extracts the first column from a CSV file.

31. tee - Write to File and Terminal

What it does: Writes output to a file and the terminal.
Example:

echo "test" | tee output.txt

Writes “test” to output.txt and shows it.

32. ln - Create Links

What it does: Creates hard or symbolic links.
Example:

ln -s note.txt link.txt

Creates a symbolic link to note.txt.

33. tar - Archive Files

What it does: Creates or extracts tar archives.
Example:

tar -cvf archive.tar docs

Creates archive.tar from the docs folder.

34. gzip - Compress Files

What it does: Compresses files.
Example:

gzip file.txt

Compresses file.txt to file.txt.gz.

35. gunzip - Decompress Files

What it does: Decompresses .gz files.
Example:

gunzip file.txt.gz

Decompresses file.txt.gz.

36. wget - Download Files

What it does: Downloads files from the web.
Example:

wget http://example.com/file.txt

Downloads file.txt.

37. curl - Transfer Data

What it does: Fetches data from URLs.
Example:

curl http://example.com

Displays the content of example.com.

38. ping - Check Connectivity

What it does: Tests network connectivity.
Example:

ping google.com

Pings google.com.

39. netstat - Network Stats

What it does: Shows network connections.
Example:

netstat -tuln

Lists open ports.

40. ifconfig - Network Config

What it does: Shows network interface info.
Example:

ifconfig

Displays network details.

41. date - Show Date/Time

What it does: Displays the current date and time.
Example:

date

Output: Mon Apr 28 12:00:00 2025

42. cal - Show Calendar

What it does: Displays a calendar.
Example:

cal

Shows the current month’s calendar.

43. uptime - System Uptime

What it does: Shows how long the system has been running.
Example:

uptime

Output: 12:00:00 up 1 day, 2:30

44. history - Show Command History

What it does: Lists previously used commands.
Example:

history

Shows your command history.

45. alias - Create Shortcuts

What it does: Creates shortcuts for commands.
Example:

alias ll='ls -l'

Now ll runs ls -l.

46. env - Show Environment Variables

What it does: Lists environment variables.
Example:

env

Shows all variables like PATH.

47. export - Set Environment Variable

What it does: Sets an environment variable.
Example:

export MY_VAR="value"

Sets MY_VAR to value.

48. sudo - Run as Admin

What it does: Runs a command with admin privileges.
Example:

sudo apt update

Updates package lists with admin rights.

49. apt - Package Manager (Ubuntu)

What it does: Manages software packages.
Example:

sudo apt install vim

Installs vim.

50. shutdown - Power Off

What it does: Shuts down the system.
Example:

sudo shutdown now

Shuts down immediately.

Wrapping Up

These 50 commands are super helpful for getting started with Linux. I’m using them a lot on my Ubuntu system, and they’re making the terminal feel less scary. Next, I’m excited to try scripting to automate things more on that soon!

If you’re new, give these commands a go and share your progress on LinkedIn. Drop a comment if you have other commands you love!