Linux commands that every developer should know#
If you work as a developer, interacting with the terminal is a fundamental skill. Here is a list of essential commands divided by category.
1. Navigation and File Management#
pwd - prints the current working directory
ls - lists files in the current directory
ls -la - lists all files (including hidden ones) with details
cd <dir> - changes directory
cd .. - goes to the parent directory
cd ~ - goes to the user’s home directory
mkdir <dir> - creates a new directory
mkdir -p <path/to/dir> - creates nested directories
touch <file> - creates an empty file or updates the timestamp
cp <source> <dest> - copies a file or directory
cp -r <source> <dest> - recursively copies a directory
mv <source> <dest> - moves or renames a file/directory
rm <file> - removes a file
rm -rf <dir> - forcefully removes a directory and its contents
2. Viewing and Manipulating Content#
cat <file> - shows the content of a file
less <file> - views file content with scrolling
head -n 10 <file> - shows the first 10 lines
tail -n 10 <file> - shows the last 10 lines
tail -f <file> - follows additions to a file in real-time (useful for logs)
grep "pattern" <file> - searches for text in a file
grep -r "pattern" . - recursively searches for text in the current directory
find . -name "*.js" - finds files by name
3. Permissions and Ownership#
chmod +x <file> - makes a file executable
chmod 755 <file> - sets rwx permissions for user, rx for others
chown user:group <file> - changes owner and group
sudo <command> - executes a command with superuser privileges
4. Processes and System#
ps aux - shows all running processes
top - dynamic monitor of processes and resources
htop - interactive and improved version of top
kill <pid> - terminates a process given its PID
killall <name> - terminates all processes with a certain name
df -h - shows available disk space
du -sh <dir> - shows total size of a directory
free -h - shows RAM memory usage
5. Network#
ping <host> - checks host reachability
curl <url> - transfers data from/to a server
curl -I <url> - shows only the response headers
wget <url> - downloads a file from the web
netstat -tuln - shows listening ports
ssh user@host - secure remote connection
scp <file> user@host:<path> - secure file copy between hosts
6. Archives and Compression#
tar -czvf archive.tar.gz <dir> - creates a compressed archive
tar -xzvf archive.tar.gz - extracts a compressed archive
zip -r archive.zip <dir> - creates a zip archive
unzip archive.zip - extracts a zip archive
7. Variables and Environment#
env - shows environment variables
export VAR=value - sets an environment variable
echo $VAR - prints the value of a variable
history - shows the history of executed commands
alias name='command' - creates an alias for a command
Bonus: Terminal Editors#
nano <file> - simple text editor
vim <file> - advanced text editor (to exit: :q!)
Knowing these commands will make you much more productive and independent in your development environment!
