March 29, 2024

Basic Linux Utilities

In this tutorial, I have collected some of the useful utility commands which will include various network monitoring, system auditing or some other random command which can help users to enhance their productivity. Hope you all like it.

Linux has a command for almost any tasks and most of them are intuitive and easily interpreted.

Getting Help in Linux

CommandUsability
man <name>Read the manual page of .
man <section> <name> Read the manual page of <name>, related to the given section.
man -k <editor>Output all the software whose man pages contain <editor> keyword.
man -K <keyword> Outputs all man pages containing <keyword> within them.
apropos <editor>Output all the applications whose one-line description matches the word editor.
When not able to recall the name of the application, use this command.
helpIn Bash shell, this will display the list of all available bash commands.
help <name>In the Bash shell, this will display the info about the bash command.
info <name>View all the information about <name>.
dpkg -lOutput a list of all installed packages on a Debian-based system.
dpkg -L packageName Will list out the files installed and path details for a given package on Debian.
dpkg -l | grep -i <edit>Return all .deb installed packages with <edit> irrespective of cases.
less /var/lib/dpkg/availableReturn descriptions of all available packages.
whatis vimList a one-line description of vim.
<command-name> –help Display usage information about the <tool-name>. Sometimes command -h also works, but not for all commands.

User identification and who is who in Linux world

CommandUsability
hostnameDisplay hostname of the system.
hostname -f Displays Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) of the system.
passwd Change password of current user.
whoamiUsername of the users logged in at the terminal.
whoList of all the users currently logged in as a user.
wDisplay current system status, time, duration, list of users currently logged in on the system and other
user information.
lastWho recently used the system.
last rootWhen was the last time root logged in as user.
lastbShows all bad login attempts into the system.
chmodChanging permissions – read,write,execute of a file or directory.

Process related information

Command Usability
topList all processes sorted by their current system resource usage. Displays a continually updated display of processes (By default 3 seconds). Use q key to exit top.
psList processes currently running on current shell
session
ps -u rootList all of the processes and commands root is running
ps auxList all the processes by all users on the current system

Vedant Kumar

Currently I'm working as an Implementation Engineer, Started my career as an System Administrator - Linux. Additionally loves to explore new technologies and research about new open-source software that ease the development cycle.

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