Linux Cheat Sheet
Here is a Linux cheat sheet that includes commands for general, hardware, and performance information, as well as commands for managing users and groups and manipulating directories and files.
General Info
Hardware Info
Performance Info
User & Group Management
Directories & File Manipulation
Here is a cheat sheet of some common Linux commands that can be useful for various tasks, such as checking general information about the system, viewing hardware information, monitoring performance, managing users and groups, and manipulating directories and files. These commands have been tested on Amazon Linux 2, but they should also work on other Linux distributions.
General Info
Command | Description |
---|---|
uname -a | Display the Linux kernel version, the name and version of the operating system, and other system information. |
hostname | Display the hostname of the system. |
uptime | Display the system uptime and the load averages for the past 1, 5, and 15 minutes. |
date | Display the current date and time. |
cal | Display a calendar for the current month. |
Hardware Info
Command | Description |
---|---|
lscpu | Display information about the CPU, such as the architecture, number of cores, and clock speed. |
lsblk | List the block devices (hard drives, SSDs, etc.) attached to the system. |
lspci | List the PCI devices (graphics cards, network cards, etc.) attached to the system. |
lsusb | List the USB devices attached to the system. |
General Info
# Show hostname hostname # Show IP Address hostname -I # Show who you are logged in as whoami # Show active user sessions w # Show uptime uptime # Show reboot history last reboot # Show date date # Show calendar cal
Hardware Info
# Show messages in kernal ring buffer dmesg # Show CPU details cat /proc/cpuinfo # Show memory details cat /proc/meminfo # Show memory usage free -h
Performance Info
# Show top processes (ctrl+c to cancel out) top # Show all open files lsof # Show all files open by a user lsof -u user
User & Group Management
# Show last users who logged in last # Show users logged in now users # Show users logged in now, more info who # Show users logged in and commands being run w # Show all users configured on the system awk -F: '{print $1}' /etc/passwd # Show all users configured on the system, more info getent passwd getent passwd | grep ec2-user # Create new user adduser pete 'password1' # Delete a user (+ delete homefolders) sudo userdel pete # Show all groups groups # Show all groups, more info getent group # Create new group sudo groupadd it # Add user to group sudo usermod -aG it pete # Show users within a group getent group it # Show primary/secondary groups id ec2-user # Delete a group sudo groupdel it
Directories & File Manipulation
# Show all files in current directory (detailed)tou ls -al # Show present working directory pwd # Create a new directory sudo mkdir home/ec2-user stuff # Delete above directory (-rf for without prompt) sudo rm -r home/ec2-user stuff # Create a new file sudo touch home/ec2-user/stuff/newfile.txt # Delete above file sudo rm home/ec2-user/stuff/newfile.txt # Copy a file sudo cp home/ec2-user/stuff/file.txt home/ec2-user/stuff/copied_file.txt # Move or rename a file sudo mv home/ec2-user/stuff/file.txt home/ec2-user/more_stuff/file.txt