Useful bash commands

Nov 5

Here’s a list of essential Bash commands that are incredibly useful for everyday tasks and more complex scripting. Whether you’re a beginner or advanced user, these will come in handy:

1. Navigation & File Management

pwd — Show the current directory path.
ls — List files and directories.
cd — Change directory.
mkdir — Create a new directory.
rm — Remove files or directories (use with caution).
cp — Copy files or directories.
mv — Move or rename files and directories.
touch — Create an empty file.
find — Search for files in a directory hierarchy. Example: find /path -name "*.txt"

2. Viewing & Editing Files

cat — Concatenate and display file contents.
less — View large files one page at a time.
head and tail — Display the beginning or end of a file.
nano or vim — Simple text editors to edit files in the terminal.

3. File Permissions & Ownership

chmod — Change file permissions. Example: chmod 755 file.txt
chown — Change file owner. Example: chown user:group file.txt

4. Process Management

ps — Display a list of currently running processes.
top — Interactive display of system processes.
kill — Send a signal to terminate a process. Example: kill PID
bg / fg — Resume jobs in the background/foreground.

5. Networking

ping — Test network connectivity. Example: ping google.com
curl — Transfer data from or to a server. Example: curl http://example.com
wget — Download files from the internet.
ifconfig / ip — Display or configure network interfaces.

6. Compression & Archiving

tar — Archive multiple files into a tarball. Example: tar -cvf archive.tar files
gzip and gunzip — Compress/decompress files.
zip and unzip — Archive/compress files with .zip format.

7. Disk Usage

df — Display disk space usage. Example: df -h
du — Display directory or file space usage. Example: du -sh /path

8. System Information

uname — Display system information. Example: uname -a
uptime — Show how long the system has been running.
free — Display memory usage.
who — Show who is logged into the system.
top — Display real-time system usage (CPU, memory, etc.)

9. Package Management (for Ubuntu/Debian)

apt-get update — Update package lists.
apt-get install — Install new packages.
apt-get remove — Remove packages.

10. Text Processing

grep — Search text using patterns. Example: grep "pattern" file.txt
awk — Process and analyze text files.
sed — Stream editor for filtering and transforming text.

11. Redirection & Piping

> — Redirect output to a file. Example: ls > file.txt
>> — Append output to a file.
| — Pipe output to another command. Example: ls | grep "txt"

12. Shell Scripting Essentials

echo — Print text to the screen. Useful in scripts.
&& and || — Logical operators for chaining commands.
for, while, if — Loop and condition structures for scripting.

13. Environment & Variables

export — Set environment variables. Example: export PATH=$PATH:/new/path
env — Display environment variables.
unset — Remove environment variables. Example: unset VARIABLE

14. System Cleanup

history — Display command history.
clear — Clear the terminal screen.
alias — Create shortcuts for commands. Example: alias ll='ls -la'

15. Powerful One-Liners

du -h --max-depth=1 — Show sizes of directories and files in current directory.
find . -type f -mtime -1 — Find files modified in the last day.
grep -r "text" /path — Recursively search for "text" in files under /path.

These commands cover a broad range of tasks, from navigating and managing files to process control and scripting. They’re essential for efficient workflow and automation in the Bash environment!

Valkyrie Consulting