Linux Tools

Learn about the software that we have installed for all our members at Pikes Peak Makerspace (PPM).

Use of software installed on PPM computers does not require any additional required training (Level 1).


Contact Us if you cannot find your answer here on our Wiki or if you notice any information that is outdated.

 

Linux Tools for Beginners

Command Line

    apropos – search the manual page names and descriptions

    clear – clear the terminal screen

    echo – display a line of text

    help – list of shell commands

    history – track input from the user a line at a time

    info – read the info documents

    man – interface to the on-line reference manuals

    say – convert text to audible speech

    scrot – SCReenshOT utility (Raspberry Pi)

    whatis – display one-line manual page descriptions

File and Directory Management

    alias – define or display aliases

    cd – change the current directory

    chown – change file owner and group

    cp – copy files and directories

    dd – convert and copy a file

    dir – list directory contents

    file – determine file type

    git – distributed revision control system

    ls – list directory contents

    mkdir – make directories

    mv – move (rename) files

    pwd – print working directory

    rm – remove files or directories

    scp – secure copy

    touch – change file timestamps

    which – locate a program file in the user's path

File Editing

    awk – pattern scanning and text processing language

    cut – remove sections from each line of files

    geany – a small and lightweight IDE (Raspberry Pi)

    gzip – compress or expand already compressed files

    nano – Nano's ANOther editor, an enhanced free Pico clone

    open – open files and directories

    pandoc – universal document converter

    scratch – easy to use interactive programming environment (Raspberry Pi)

    sed – stream editor

    tar – manipulate tape archives

    unzip – list, test and extract compressed files in a ZIP archive

    vim – Vi IMproved, a programmers text editor

File Transfer

    curl – "command line tool and library for transferring data with URLs"

    wget – "package for retrieving files using HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and FTPS"

File Viewing

    cat – concatenate and print files

    diff – compare 2 files line by line

    find – search for files in a directory hierarchy

    grep – print lines that match patterns

    head – output the first part of files

    jq – lightweight and flexible command-line JSON processor

    less – opposite of more

    locate – faster version of find, depends on a database

    look – display lines beginning with a given string

    more – page through text one screenful at a time

    tail – output the last part of files

    wc – word counts, and line and byte counts

    zgrep – search compressed files

Math Functions

    bc – basic calculator

    dc – RPN “Desktop Calculator”

    log – natural logarithmic function

    mathematica – open the app (Raspberry Pi)

    sin – sine function

Network Config

    ifconfig – configure network interface parameters

    ipconfig – "Internet Protocol configuration", refreshes DHCP and DNS settings on some systems

    ss – utility to investigate sockets

    ssh – OpenSSH SSH client (remote login program)

Network Monitoring

    ping – send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST packets to network hosts

    nc – arbitrary TCP and UDP connections and listens

    netstat – show network status

    traceroute – print the route packets take to network host

Package Managers

    apt – APT package handling utility

    apt-get – APT package handling utility

    dnf – for Fedora, (successor to YUM)

    dpkg – for Debian

    homebrew – for macOS or Linux

    rpm – for Red Hat and CentOS

    snap – for Ubuntu

    yum – for Fedora (Yellowdog Updater Modified)

    zypper – for OpenSUSE

Process Management

    bg – run a job/process in the background

    fg – run a job/process in the foreground

    halt – halt, power-off or reboot the machine

    htop – human readable table of processes

    jobs – list all jobs; active, stopped, or otherwise

    kill – terminate or signal a process

    killall – kill processes by name

    ps – process status

    pstree – display a tree of processes

    reboot – halt, power-off or reboot the machine

    shutdown – halt, power-off or reboot the machine

    sudo – execute a command as another user

    tmux – terminal multiplexer

    top – table of processes

System Info

    arch – print machine hardware name (architecture)

    date – print or set the system date and time

    df – display free disk space

    du – display disk usage statistics

    fc-list – list available fonts  (Raspberry Pi)

    free – display amount of free and used memory in the system

    hostname – show or set the system's host name

    lsblk – list block devices

    lscpu – list information about the CPU architecture

    lshw – list hardware

    lsusb – list USB devices

    time – get time in seconds

    uname – print operating system name

    uptime – print up time and load

User and Group Management

    groupadd – create a new group

    groupdel – delete a group

    groups – show group memberships

    id – return user identity

    passwd – modify a user's password

    useradd – create a new user or update default new user info

    userdel – delete a user account and related files

    usermod – modify a user account

    who – print effective user ID

    whoami – print the user name

Related Pages

Links to related PPM Wiki pages:

GitHub Tips

  Computers — Ubuntu  

  Computers — Mac and Apple  

  Computers — Windows  

  Infrastructure at PPM  

  Raspberry Pi  

Hand-Curated Links

Links to member-recommended external sites:

List of POSIX commands — on Wikipedia

List of free and open-source software packages — on Wikipedia

PowerShell learning resources — on learn.Microsoft.com

For Additional Help

Use the PPM Slack channel #computing

List of all PPM Slack channels

Note that we have a Slack channel (#job-board) for members to post, discuss, or accept job opportunities either within PPM or from the community.

Search the PPM Wiki — include Content pages as well as Multimedia.

Contact Us if you cannot find your answer here on our Wiki or if you notice any information that is outdated.

Pikes Peak Makerspace (PPM) is dedicated to supporting our maker community in their creative processes by providing shared space, shared tools, materials, software, and a knowledge base to turn their ideas into reality.