Linux >
Various commandline tools common to most Linux distributions.
System ∞
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| Bash | I use Zsh where available, but most of my scripting is intended to be shell-agnostic (sh). |
| sync | Flush pending file writes immediately out to disk. |
| sh | The vanilla shell. Sometimes it is instead "busybox", and usually Bash. |
| top | View information about currently-running applications/processes. |
| xargs | Work with very long commandlines. TODO - probably lots more, I don't know.. |
Files and directories ∞
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| dd | Read and write arbitrary data to a location (file, partition or device/drive) |
| head | View lines from the top of a file. See also tail. |
| ln | Create symbolic links. |
| mkdir | Make a directory. |
| more | Pager (file viewer) - Instead use less where available. |
| read | Get keyboard input. |
| stat | Get detailed information on a file. |
| tail | View lines from the bottom of a file. See also head. |
| tee | Write output to multiple files at once |
Other ∞
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| dirname | Output the final directory in a path. |
| basename | Output the path without the final directory. |
| readlink | Output a relative path as an absolute path. |
| tr | Translate or delete characters |
basename ∞
basename ./directory/ # => directory
basename ./directory/file # => file
dirname ∞
dirname ./directory/ # => .
readlink ∞
readlink -f ./directory/ # => /path/to/directory
readlink -f ../wherever/./directory/ # => /path/to/directory
tee ∞
ls | tee file1 file2 file3
Old notes ∞
- ulimit -- Various system limits
- iostat -- monitor cpu and disk usage
- vmstat -- monitor memory usage
dstat -- combines iostat and vmstat
sar -- system activity
