CONTENTS

Introduction
Prerequisites
The ls command in Linux
The pwd command in Linux
The cd command in Linux
The mkdir command in Linux
The cp and mv commands
The rm command in Linux
The touch command in Linux
The ln command in Linux
The clear command in Linux
The cat, echo, and less commands
The man command in Linux
The uname and whoami commands
The tar, zip, and unzip commands
The grep command in Linux
The head and tail commands
The diff, comm, and cmp commands
The sort command in Linux
The export command in Linux
The ssh command in Linux
The service command in Linux

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Top 50+ Linux Commands

Updated on April 16, 2024 Developers

UNIX/Linux Linux Commands Linux Basics

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Anish Singh Walia
Sr Technical Writer
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Introduction

Using Linux commands on a regular basis? Today, we’ll look at 50+ Linux
commands you must know. The commands listed below are some of the most
useful and most frequently used Linux commands.

Prerequisites

We will be running these commands on a Ubuntu server, but you can follow along
on any modern Linux distribution. You can set up a Ubuntu server for this tutorial by
following our guide to Initial Server Setup on Ubuntu.

Deploy your frontend applications from GitHub using DigitalOcean App Platform. Let
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Let’s get right into it!

Top 50 Linux Commands You Must Know as a Regular User

1. ls - The most frequently used command in Linux to list directories

 2. pwd - Print working directory command in Linux
3. cd - Linux command to navigate through directories
4. mkdir - Command used to create directories in Linux
5. mv - Move or rename files in Linux
6. cp - Similar usage as mv but for copying files in Linux
7. rm - Delete files or directories
8. touch - Create blank/empty files
9. ln - Create symbolic links (shortcuts) to other files
10. clear - Clear the terminal display
11. cat - Display file contents on the terminal
12. echo - Print any text that follows the command
13. less - Linux command to display paged outputs in the terminal
14. man - Access manual pages for all Linux commands
15. uname - Linux command to get basic information about the OS
16. whoami - Get the active username
17. tar - Command to extract and compress files in linux
18. grep - Search for a string within an output
19. head - Return the specified number of lines from the top
20. tail - Return the specified number of lines from the bottom
21. diff - Find the difference between two files
22. cmp - Allows you to check if two files are identical
23. comm - Combines the functionality of diff and cmp
24. sort - Linux command to sort the content of a file while outputting
25. export - Export environment variables in Linux
26. zip - Zip files in Linux
27. unzip - Unzip files in Linux
28. ssh - Secure Shell command in Linux
29. service - Linux command to start and stop services
30. ps - Display active processes
31. kill and killall - Kill active processes by process ID or name
32. df - Display disk filesystem information
33. mount - Mount file systems in Linux
34. chmod - Command to change file permissions
35. chown - Command for granting ownership of files or folders
36. ifconfig - Display network interfaces and IP addresses
37. traceroute - Trace all the network hops to reach the destination
38. wget - Direct download files from the internet
39. ufw - Firewall command
40. iptables - Base firewall for all other firewall utilities to interface with
41. apt, pacman, yum, rpm - Package managers depending on the
distribution
42. sudo - Command to escalate privileges in Linux
43. cal - View a command-line calendar
44. alias - Create custom shortcuts for your regularly used commands
45. dd - Majorly used for creating bootable USB sticks
46. whereis - Locate the binary, source, and manual pages for a command
 47. whatis - Find what a command is used for
48. top - View active processes live with their system usage
49. useradd and usermod - Add a new user or change existing user data
50. passwd - Create or update passwords for existing users

Now let’s dive a little deeper into each of these commands and understand them
in more detail. We already have a lot of existing articles for each of those
individual commands. For your convenience, we’ll add links to all the existing
articles, and continue to update the article as new topics are covered.

The ls command in Linux

The ls command is used to list files and directories in the current working
directory. This is going to be one of the most frequently used Linux commands you
must know of.

As you can see in the above image, using the command by itself without any
arguments will give us an output with all the files and directories in the directory.
The command offers a lot of flexibility in terms of displaying the data in the output.
Learn more about using the ls command
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The pwd command in Linux

The pwd command allows you to print the current working directory on your
terminal. It’s a very basic command and solves its purpose very well.

Now, your terminal prompt should usually have the complete directory anyway. But
in case it doesn’t, this can be a quick command to see the directory that you’re in.
Another application of this command is when creating scripts where this command
can allow us to find the directory where the script has been saved.
Jump back to commands list ↑

The cd command in Linux

While working within the terminal, moving around within directories is pretty much a
necessity. The cd command is one of the important Linux commands you must
know, and it will help you navigate through directories. Just type cd followed by
directory, as shown below.

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root@ubuntu:~# cd <directory path>

As you can see in the above command, I simply typed cd /etc/ to get into the /etc
directory. We used the pwd command to print the current working directory.
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The mkdir command in Linux

The mkdir command allows you to create directories from within the terminal.

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root@ubuntu:~# mkdir <folder name>

As you can see in the above screenshot, we created the JournalDev directory with
just this simple command.
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The cp and mv commands

The cp and mv commands are equivalent to the copy-paste and cut-paste

commands in Windows. But since Linux doesn’t really have a command for
renaming files, we also use the mv command to rename files and folders.

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root@ubuntu:~# cp <source> <destination>

In the above command, we created a copy of the file named Sample. Let’s see how
what happens if we use the mv command in the same manner.

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root@ubuntu:~# mv <source> <destination

In the above case, since we were moving the file within the same directory, it acted
as a rename. The file name is now changed.
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The rm command in Linux

In the previous section, we deleted the Sample-Copy file. The rm command is used
to delete files and folders and is one of the important Linux commands you must
know.

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root@ubuntu:~# rm <file name>

To delete a directory, you must add the -r argument to it. Without the -r argument,
the rm command won’t delete directories.

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root@ubuntu:~# rm -r <folder/directory name>

The -r flag in the rm command in Linux stands for “recursive”. When used with the
rm command, it will remove not only the specified file but also all of its
subdirectories and the files within those subdirectories recursively.
 Note: It’s important to be careful when using the rm command with the -r flag, as it
can quickly and permanently delete a large number of files and directories. It’s a
good idea to use the -i flag in conjunction with the -r flag, which will prompt you
for confirmation before deleting each file and directory.
For example, to remove the mydir directory and its contents with confirmation, you
can use this command:

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root@ubuntu:~# rm -ri mydir

This will prompt you for confirmation before deleting each file and directory within
the mydir directory.

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The touch command in Linux

The touch command in Linux creates an empty file or updates the timestamp of an
existing file.

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root@ubuntu:~# touch <file name>

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The ln command in Linux

To create a link to another file, we use the ln command. This is one of the most
important Linux commands that you should know if you’re planning to work as a
Linux administrator.

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root@ubuntu:~# ln -s <source path> <link name>

The -s flag creates a symbolic link (also known as a symlink or soft link) to a file or
directory. A symbolic link is a special type of file that acts as a shortcut or pointer to
another file or directory.
By default, the ln command will make hard links instead of symbolic or soft links.

Note: Say you have a text file. If you make a symbolic link to that file, the link is only
a pointer to the original file. If you delete the original file, the link will be broken, as it
no longer has anything to point to.
A hard link is a mirror copy of an original file with the exact same contents. Like
symbolic links, if you edit the contents of the original file, those changes will be
reflected in the hard link. If you delete the original file, though, the hard link will still
work, and you can view and edit it as you would a normal copy of the original file.

Learn more about Soft and Hard Links.

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The clear command in Linux

The clear command in Linux clears the terminal screen. It removes all the text and
output currently displayed on the terminal and gives you a clean slate to work with.
Here is an example of how to use the clear command:
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root@ubuntu:~# clear

This will clear the terminal screen and move the cursor to the top-left corner of the
screen.
You can also use the clear command in combination with other commands, like
this:

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root@ubuntu:~# ls -l; clear

This will list the files and directories in the current directory, and then clear the
terminal screen.

Note: The clear command does not delete any files or data from your system. It
only affects the display of the terminal.

The cat , echo , and less commands

When you want to output the contents of a file or print anything to the terminal
output, we use the cat or echo commands. Let’s see their basic usage.

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root@ubuntu:~# cat <file name>

root@ubuntu:~# echo <Text to print on terminal>
As you can see in the above example, the cat command, when used on our New-
File , prints the contents of the file. At the same time, when we use echo command,
it simply prints whatever follows after the command.
The less command is used when the output printed by any command is larger than
the screen space and needs scrolling. The less command allows the user to break
down the output and scroll through it with the use of the enter or space keys.
The simple way to do this is with the use of the pipe operator ( | ).

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root@ubuntu:~# cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg | less

Note: Use the -S flag with less to enable line wrapping. This will allow you to view
long lines of text without scrolling horizontally.
Use the -N flag with less to display line numbers. This can be useful when you
need to know the line number of a specific piece of text.
You can use these useful flags in the following way:

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root@ubuntu:~# cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg | less -SN

Using less with the pipe operator can be useful in many different situations. Here
are a few examples:
Viewing the output of a long-running command, such as top or htop .
Searching for specific text in the output of a command, such as grep or cat .

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The man command in Linux

The man command is a very useful Linux command one must know. When working
with Linux, the packages that we download can have a lot of functionality. Knowing
it all is impossible.
The man command in Linux is used to display the manual page for a specific
command. It provides detailed information about the command, including its syntax,
options, and examples.
Here’s an example of how to use the man command:
1. Open a terminal and type man ls to display the manual page for the ls
command.

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root@ubuntu:~# man ls

This will display a page that looks something like this:

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Output
LS(1) User Commands L

NAME
ls - list directory contents

SYNOPSIS
ls [OPTION]... [FILE]...

DESCRIPTION
List information about the FILEs (the current directory by default)

Sort entries alphabetically if none of -cftuvSUX nor --sort is spec

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options

-a, --all
do not ignore entries starting with .

-A, --almost-all
do not list implied . and ..

-c with -lt: sort by, and show, ctime (time of last modificatio
of file status information) with -l: show ctime and sort
by name;
...
Jump back to commands list ↑

The uname and whoami commands

The uname and whoami commands allow you to access some basic information that
comes in handy when you work on multiple systems.
The uname command in Linux displays information about the system’s kernel,
including the kernel name, hostname, kernel release, kernel version, and machine
hardware name.
The whoami command in Linux returns the current user’s username. It stands for
“who am I?” and it’s often used to determine the current user’s identity in shell
scripts or the terminal.
Let’s see the output of both the commands and the way we can use these.

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root@ubuntu:~# uname -a

The parameter -a with uname command stands for “all”. This prints out the
complete information. If the parameter is not added, all you will get as the output is
“Linux”.

Note: Some important flags you can use with the uname command.
1. Use uname -s to display the kernel name.
2. Use uname -n to display the hostname.
3. Use uname -r to display the kernel release.
4. Use uname -v to display the kernel version.
5. Use uname -m to display the machine hardware name.

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The tar , zip , and unzip commands

The tar command in Linux is used to create and extract archived files. We can
extract multiple different archive files using the tar command.
To create an archive, we use the -c parameter, and to extract an archive, we use
the -x parameter. Let’s see how it works.

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#Compress
root@ubuntu:~# tar -cvf <archive name> <files separated by space>
#Extract
root@ubuntu:~# tar -xvf <archive name>

In the first line, we created an archive named Compress.tar with the New-File and
New-File-Link. In the next command, we have extracted those files from the archive.
Let’s discuss the zip and unzip commands. Both are very straightforward. You can
use them without any parameters, and they’ll work as intended. Let’s see an
example below.

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root@ubuntu:~# zip <archive name> <file names separated by space>

root@ubuntu:~# unzip <archive name>
Since we already have those files in the same directory, the unzip command
prompts us before overwriting those files.
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The grep command in Linux

The grep command is a powerful and versatile text search tool in Linux and Unix-
based operating systems. It can search for specific patterns or strings in one or
more files and filter the output of other commands.
The grep command stands for “global regular expression print,” which reflects its
ability to search for regular expressions across multiple lines and files.

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root@ubuntu:~# <Any command with output> | grep "<string to find>"

This was a simple demonstration of the command. Learn more about the grep
command.
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The head and tail commands

When outputting large files, the head and tail commands come in handy. These
commands display the beginning or end of a file, respectively. They are commonly
used to quickly view the contents of a file without having to open it in a text editor.
The head and tail commands display the first 10 lines of a file by default. To
display a different number of lines, you can use the -n option, followed by the
number of lines you want to display.
Here’s an example of using the head and tail commands:

Copy

root@ubuntu:~# head <file name>

root@ubuntu:~# tail <file name>

As you can see, the head command showed 10 lines from the top of the file.
The tail command outputted the bottom 10 lines from the file.
These commands can be used to quickly view a file’s contents, monitor real-time
updates for troubleshooting issues, filter output from other commands, and perform
log analysis.
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The diff , comm , and cmp commands

The diff , comm , and cmp commands are all used to compare files in Linux and
Unix-based operating systems. These commands can be used to identify
differences between two files, merge changes, and perform other file comparison
tasks.

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root@ubuntu:~# diff <file 1> <file 2>

As you can see above, we have added a small piece of text saying, “This line is
edited” to the New-File-Edited file.
The cmp command is used to compare two files and display the first byte that is
different between them. It can be used to identify differences between binary files
or to check for corruption in files.

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root@ubuntu:~# cmp <file 1> <file 2>

The cmp command only tells us the line number, which is different. Not the actual
text.
The comm command is used to compare two sorted files and display the lines that
are unique to each file, as well as the lines that are common to both files.

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root@ubuntu:~# comm <file 1> <file2>

The text that’s aligned to the left is only present in file 1 . The centre-aligned text
is present only in file 2 . And the right-aligned text is present in both files.
By the looks of it, comm command makes the most sense when we’re trying to
compare larger files and would like to see everything arranged together.
All three of these commands are essential tools for working with files in Linux and
Unix-based operating systems. By understanding how to use the diff , comm , and
cmp commands effectively, you can identify differences between files, merge
changes, and perform other file comparison tasks.
These commands can help you to identify and resolve issues with files, as well as to
track changes and maintain version control. Whether you’re a developer or a system
administrator, these commands are an essential part of your toolkit.
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The sort command in Linux

The sort command is used to sort lines in a text file or standard input in Linux and
Unix-based operating systems. It can be used to sort lines in ascending or
descending order and to perform other sorting operations, such as sorting by fields
or using a custom sorting order.
The basic syntax of the sort command is:

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root@ubuntu:~# sort <filename>

By default, the sort command sorts lines in ASCII collating sequence, which can
lead to unexpected results when sorting numbers or special characters. To sort
numbers in numerical order, you can use the -n option.
Here’s an example of using the -n option:

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root@ubuntu:~# sort -n file.txt

The above command will sort the lines in file.txt in numerical order.
The sort command can also be used to sort lines based on specific fields using the
-k option.

Here’s an example of using the -k option:

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root@ubuntu:~# sort -k 2 file.txt

This command will sort the lines in file.txt based on the second field.
The sort command is a powerful and flexible tool for working with text files in Linux
and Unix-based operating systems. By understanding how to use the sort
command effectively, you can sort lines in text files, sort lines based on specific
fields, and perform other sorting operations.
These commands can help you organize and analyze data and perform other file
manipulation tasks. Whether you’re a developer or a system administrator, the sort
command is an essential part of your toolkit.
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The export command in Linux

The export command in Linux and Unix-based operating systems is used to set
environment variables. Environment variables are used to store information that can
be used by processes or commands.
Once an environment variable is set, it can be accessed by any process or
command that is running in the same shell.
Environment variables can be used to store a wide range of information, such as
configuration settings, user preferences, or system information.
Here’s an example of using the export command:

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root@ubuntu:~# export <variable name>=<value>

Learn more about the export command
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The ssh command in Linux

The ssh command in Linux and Unix-based operating systems establishes a secure
shell connection to a remote server. The command provides a secure encrypted
connection between the local and remote servers, allowing users to run commands
and transfer files securely.
The basic syntax of the ssh command is:

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root@ubuntu:~ ssh username@remote-server

This command establishes an ssh connection to the remote-server using the

username account.

The ssh command supports a wide range of options and configurations, including:
Configuring authentication methods (password, public key, etc.)
Configuring encryption algorithms
Configuring compression
Configuring port forwarding
Configuring X11 forwarding
Configuring SSH keys

The service command in Linux

The service command in Linux is used to manage system services, which are long-
running processes that are started at boot time and run in the background. These
services are responsible for providing various system functionalities, such as
networking, database management, and user authentication.
The service command is used to start, stop, restart, and check the status of these
services. It is a front-end to the systemctl command, which is used to manage the
systemd service manager.

The basic syntax of the command is as below.

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root@ubuntu:~ service ssh status

root@ubuntu:~ service ssh stop
root@ubuntu:~ service ssh start

As you can see in the image, the ssh server is running on our system.
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The ps , kill , and killall commands

The ps , kill , and killall commands are all used to manage processes in Linux.
The ps command is used to display information about the current running
processes on the system. Here are some examples of using the ps command:
Display a list of all running processes:

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root@ubuntu:~ ps -ef

Display a list of all processes for a specific process ID (PID):

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root@ubuntu:~ ps -p PID

Let’s see all of this in action:

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root@ubuntu:~ ps
root@ubuntu:~ kill <process ID>
root@ubuntu:~ killall <process name>

For demonstration purposes, we will create a shell script with an infinite loop and
will run it in the background.
With the use of the & symbol, we can pass a process into the background. As you
can see, a new bash process with PID 14490 is created.

Now, to kill a process with the kill command, you can type kill followed by the
PID(Process Id) of the process.
But if you do not know the process ID and just want to kill the process with the
name, you can make use of the killall command.

You will notice that PID 14490 stayed active. That is because, both times, we killed
the sleep process.
Learn more about the ps command and the kill command.
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The df and mount commands

When working with Linux, the df and mount commands are very efficient utilities to
mount filesystems and get details of the file system.
The df command is used to display the amount of disk space used and available on
the file systems, and the mount command is used to mount a file system or device
to a specific directory.
When we say mount , it means that we’ll connect the device to a folder so we can
access the files from our filesystem. The default syntax to mount a filesystem is
below:

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root@ubuntu:~ mount /dev/cdrom /mnt

root@ubuntu:~ df -h

In the above case, /dev/cdrom is the device that needs to be mounted. Usually, a
mountable device is found inside the /dev folder. mnt is the destination folder to
which to mount the device. You can change it to any folder you want, but we have
used /mnt as it’s the system’s default folder for mounting devices.
To see the mounted devices and get more information about them, we use the df
command. Just typing df will give us the data in bytes, which is not readable. So,
we’ll use the -h parameter to make the data human-readable.

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The chmod and chown commands

The chmod and chown commands are used to modify file permissions and
ownership in Linux.
The chmod command is used to change the permissions of a file or directory, and
the chown command is used to change the ownership of a file or directory
The default syntax for both the commands is chmod <parameter> filename and
chown <user:group> filename

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root@ubuntu:~ chmod +x loop.sh

root@ubuntu:~ chmod root:root loop.sh
In the above example, we’re adding executable permissions to the loop.sh file with
the chmod command. In addition, with the chown command, we’ve made it
accessible only to the root user and users within the root group.

As you will notice, the root root part is now changed to www-data which is the new
user who has full file ownership.
Learn more about the Linux file Permissions and using the chmod command.
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The ifconfig and traceroute commands

The ifconfig and traceroute commands manage network interfaces and trace the
route of network packets in Linux.
The ifconfig command will give you the list of all the network interfaces along with
the IP addresses, MAC addresses and other information about the interface.

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root@ubuntu:~ ifconfig

There are multiple parameters that can be used, but we’ll work with the basic
command here.
The traceroute command is used to trace the route of network packets and
determine the path they take to reach a specific destination.
When working with traceroute , you can simply specify the IP address, hostname,
or domain name of the endpoint.

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root@ubuntu:~ traceroute <destination address>

Now, obviously, localhost is just one hop (the network interface itself). You can try
this same command with any other domain name or IP address to see all the routers
your data packets pass through to reach the destination.
Learn more about the handy Linux Networking tools.
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The wget command in Linux

If you want to download a file from within the terminal, the wget command is one of
the handiest command-line utilities available. It is one of the important Linux
commands you should know when working with source files.
When you specify the link for download, it has to directly be a link to the file. If the
file cannot be accessed by the wget command, it will simply download the webpage
in HTML format instead of the actual file that you wanted.
Let’s try an example. The basic syntax of the wget command is :

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root@ubuntu:~ wget <link to file>

Or,
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root@ubuntu:~ wget -c <link to file>

The -c argument allows us to resume an interrupted download.

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The ufw and iptables commands

The ufw and iptables commands are used to manage firewalls in Linux.
UFW and IPTables are firewall interfaces for the Linux Kernel’s netfilter firewall.
IPTables directly passes firewall rules to Netfilter while UFW configures the rules in
IPTables, which then sends those rules to Netfilter.
Why do we need UFW when we have IPTables? Because IPTables is pretty difficult
for a newbie. UFW makes things extremely easy. See the below example where we
are trying to allow port 80 for our webserver.

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root@ubuntu:~# iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT

root@ubuntu:~# ufw allow 80

I’m sure you now know why UFW was created! Look at how easy the syntax
becomes. Both these firewalls are very comprehensive and can allow you to create
any kind of configuration required for your network. Learn at least the basics of
UFW or IPTables firewall, as these are the Linux commands you must know.
Learn more about managing firewall with ufw and managing firewall with iptables .

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Package Managers in Linux

Different Linux distributions use different package managers. Since we’re working
on a Ubuntu server, we have the apt package manager. But for someone working
on a Fedora, Red Hat, Arch, or Centos machine, the package manager will be
different.
Below are the commands on how to use these package managers on different Linux
distributions.
Debian and Debian-based distros - apt install <package name>
Arch and Arch-based distros - pacman -S <package name>
Red Hat and Red Hat-based distros - yum install <package name>
Fedora and CentOS - yum install <package>

Getting yourself well versed with the package manager of your distribution will make
things much easier for you in the long run. So even if you have a GUI based package
management tool installed, try an make use of the CLI based tool before you move
on to the GUI utility. Add these to your list of Linux commands you must know.
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The sudo command in Linux

“With great power, comes great responsibility”

This is the quote displayed when a sudo-enabled user(sudoer) first uses the sudo
command to escalate privileges. This command is equivalent to logging in as root
(based on what permissions you have as a sudoer).

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non-root-user@ubuntu:~# sudo <command you want to run>

Password:

Just add the command sudo before any command that you need to run with
escalated privileges, and that’s it. It’s very simple to use, but can also be an added
security risk if a malicious user gains access to a sudoer.
Learn more about how to create a new sudo user and how to edit sudoers file.
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The cal command in Linux

Have you ever wanted to view the calendar in the terminal? There apparently are
people who want it to happen, and well, here it is.
The cal command displays a well-presented calendar on the terminal. Just enter
the command cal on your terminal prompt.

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root@ubuntu:~# cal
root@ubuntu:~# cal March 2024

Although we don’t need it often, it’s a great addition! It’s an amazing option for
terminal fans.
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The alias command

Do you have some commands that you run very frequently while using the terminal?
It could be rm -r or ls -l , or it could be something longer like tar -xvzf .
This is one of the productivity-boosting Linux commands you must know.
If you know a command that you run very often, it’s time to create an alias .

What’s an alias? In simple terms, it’s another name for a command that you’ve
defined.

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root@ubuntu:~# alias lsl="ls -l"

OR
root@ubuntu:~# alias rmd="rm -r"

Now, every time you enter lsl or rmd in the terminal, you’ll receive the output that
you’d have received if you had used the full commands.
The examples here are for really small commands that you can still type by hand
every time. But in some situations where a command has too many arguments that
you need to type, it’s best to create a shorthand version of the same.
Jump back to commands list ↑

The dd command in Linux

This command was created to convert and copy files from multiple file system
formats. In the current day, the command is simply used to create bootable USB for
Linux but there still are some things important you can do with the command.
The dd command in Linux is a versatile command used for low-level copying and
conversion of data. It stands for “data-description” or “data definition,” and it can be
used to copy and convert data between different file formats and storage devices.
For example, if we wanted to back up the entire hard drive as is to another drive, we
would use the dd command.

Copy

root@ubuntu:~# dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/sda

The if and of arguments stand for input file and output file.
It’s a powerful and flexible tool, but it can also be dangerous if not used carefully.
Always double-check your syntax and make sure you know what the command will
do before executing it.
Jump back to commands list ↑

The whereis and whatis commands

The whereis and whatis commands are used in Linux to search for information
about programs and files.
The whereis command locates the binary, source, and manual pages for a specific
command or program, and the whatis command displays a short description of a
command or program.

Copy

root@ubuntu:~# whereis sudo

sudo: /usr/bin/sudo /usr/lib/sudo /usr/share/man/man8/sudo.8.gz

The whatis command gives us an explanation of what a command actually is.

Copy

root@ubuntu:~# whatis sudo

sudo (8) - execute a command as another user

Jump back to commands list ↑

The top command in Linux

A few sections earlier, we talked about the ps command. You observed that the ps
command will output the active processes and end itself.
The top command is like a CLI version of the task manager in Windows.
The top command in Linux is a system monitoring tool that displays real-time
information about system processes and resource usage. It provides a dynamic,
real-time view of system activity, including CPU usage, memory usage, and process
information.
Note: Here are some examples of using the top command:
1. Sort processes by memory usage:

Copy

root@ubuntu:~# top -o MEM

This will sort the process list by memory usage, with the most memory-intensive
processes at the top.
2. Display detailed information about a specific process:

Copy

root@ubuntu:~# top -p PID

Replace PID with the ID of the process you want to inspect.

3. Display a summary of system resource usage:

Copy

root@ubuntu:~# top -n 1

This will display a single summary screen of system resource usage.

It’s a powerful and flexible tool for monitoring system activity and troubleshooting
performance issues.
Jump back to commands list ↑

The useradd and usermod commands

The useradd and usermod commands are used in Linux to manage user accounts.
The useradd or adduser commands are the exact same commands where adduser
is just a symbolic link to the useradd command. This command allows us to create a
new user in Linux.

Copy

root@ubuntu:~# useradd JournalDev -d /home/JD

The above command will create a new user named JournalDev with the home
directory as /home/JD .
The usermod command, on the other hand, is used to modify existing users. You can
modify any value of the user including the groups, the permissions, etc.
For example, if you want to add more groups to the user, you can type in:

Copy

root@ubuntu:~# usermod JournalDev -a -G sudo, audio, mysql

Jump back to commands list ↑

The passwd command in Linux

Now that you know how to create new users, let’s also set the password for them.
The passwd command lets you set the password for your own account, or if you
have the permissions, set the password for other accounts.
Here are some examples of using the passwd command:
1. Change the password for the current user:
 Copy

root@ubuntu:~# passwd

This will prompt you to enter a new password for the current user.
2. Change the password for a specific user:

Copy

root@ubuntu:~# passwd username

Replace username with the name of the user whose password you want to change.
3. Force a user to change their password at the next login:

Copy

root@ubuntu:~# passwd -f username

4. Set an expiration date for a user’s password:

Copy

root@ubuntu:~# passwd -e -n days -w warndays username

Replace days with the number of days before the password expires and warm days
with the number of days before the password expires that the user will be warned.
These are just a few examples of using the passwd command in Linux. By
understanding how to use this command effectively, you can manage user accounts
and ensure that your system is secure.
Jump back to commands list ↑

Conclusion

We are confident that you found this article helpful. Should you have any questions
or concerns, please do not hesitate to ask in the comments section below.

Thanks for learning with the DigitalOcean Community. Check out our offerings
for compute, storage, networking, and managed databases.
Learn more about our products ->

About the authors

Anish Singh Walia Author

Sr Technical Writer
Sr. Technical Writer@ DigitalOcean | Medium Top Writers(AI & ChatGPT) | 2M+
monthly views & 34K Subscribers | Ex Cloud Consultant @ AMEX | Ex
SRE(DevOps) @ NUTANIX

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 Comments

JournalDev • May 14, 2021

Amazing! Perfect for newbies to Linux! PERFECT! THANK YOU!
- Julian

JournalDev • February 6, 2020

Thank you for your work.
- jcag

Show replies

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike 4.0

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