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).

 

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

    scrot – command line screen capture utility

    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 – fast, scalable, 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

File Editing

    awk – pattern scanning and text processing language

    cut – remove sections from each line of files

    expand – convert tabs to spaces

    geany – a small and lightweight IDE  (Raspberry Pi)

    gzip – compress or expand files

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

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

    sed – stream editor

    tar – manipulate tape archives

    vim – Vi IMproved, a programmers text editor

File Transfer

    curl – transfer a URL

    wget – non-interactive download of files

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

    less – opposite of more

    more – page through text one screenful at a time

    open and possibly create a file

    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

    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 Management

    apt-get – APT package handling utility

    apt – APT package handling utility

    dnf – Fedora, successor to YUM

    dpkg – package manager for Debian

    homebrew – for macOS or Linux

    rpm – Red Hat and CentOS

    snap – for Ubuntu

    yum – Yellowdog Updater Modified (Fedora)

    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