Common CLI Utilities

While there are a lot of command line utilities to be aware of and explore, there are a list of ones that are considered essential. These are mostly common in Unix-based operating systems, like Linux and Mac.

1. awk
2. A versatile language for working with files and filtering data.
3. Eg: awk '{print $1}' file.txt
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5. cat
6. Concatenate files and print on the standard output.
7. Eg: cat file.txt
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9. cd
10. Change the current directory.
11. Eg: cd /path/to/directory
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13. chmod
14. Change file mode bits (permissions).
15. Eg: chmod 755 file.txt
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17. chown
18. Change file owner and group.
19. Eg: chown user:group file.txt
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21. cp
22. Copy files and directories.
23. Eg: cp file.txt /path/to/directory
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25. curl
26. Call a URL.
27. Eg: curl https://example.com
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29. df
30. Report estimate of total filesystem disk space usage.
31. Eg: df -h
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33. du
34. Estimate file space usage for a given path.
35. Eg: du -sh /path/to/directory
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37. echo
    • Display a line of text/string that is passed as an argument.
    • Eg: echo "Hello, World!"
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38. env
    • Print or set the environment variables.
    • Eg: env | grep PATH
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39. export
    • Set or export the environment variable.
    • Eg: export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin
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40. find
    • Search for files in a directory hierarchy.
    • Eg: find /path/to/directory -name "*.txt"
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41. grep
    • Print lines matching a pattern.
    • Eg: grep "pattern" file.txt
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42. head
    • Output the first part of files.
    • Eg: head file.txt
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43. kill
    • Send a signal to a process, usually to stop the process.
    • Eg: kill -9 1234
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44. less
    • Opposite of more.
    • Eg: less file.txt
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45. ln
    • Create a symbolic link to a file.
    • Eg: ln -s /path/to/file link
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46. ls
    • List directory contents.
    • Eg: ls -l
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47. man
    • Format and display the on-line manual pages.
    • Eg: man ls
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48. mkdir
    • Make directories.
    • Eg: mkdir directory
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49. mv
    • Move files.
    • Eg: mv file.txt /path/to/directory
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50. netstat
    • Show network connections, routing tables, interface statistics, masquerade connections, and multicast memberships.
    • Eg: netstat -an
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51. ps
    • Report a snapshot of the current processes.
    • Eg: ps aux
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52. pwd
    • Print name of current/working directory.
    • Eg: pwd
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53. rm
    • Remove files or directories.
    • Eg: rm file.txt
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54. sed
    • Stream editor for filtering and transforming text.
    • Eg: sed 's/old/new/g' file.txt
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55. sort
    • Sort lines of text files.
    • Eg: sort file.txt
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56. tail
    • Output the last part of files.
    • Eg: tail file.txt
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57. tar
    • The GNU version of the tar archiving utility.
    • Eg: tar -czvf archive.tar.gz /path/to/directory
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58. top
    • Display Linux processes. It provides a dynamic real-time view of the running system.
    • Eg: top
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59. touch
    • Change file timestamps.
    • Eg: touch file.txt
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60. uname
    • Print system information.
    • Eg: uname -a
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61. wget
    • The non-interactive network downloader.
    • Eg: wget https://example.com
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62. which
    • Show the full path of commands.
    • Eg: which ls
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63. who
    • Show who is logged on.
    • Eg: who
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64. xargs
    • Build and execute command lines from standard input.
    • Eg: find /path/to/directory -name "*.txt" | xargs grep "pattern"
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