Linux Cheat Sheet - Command Line

COMMAND INPUT

The colors designate the actual Linux command in blue, while the user input (file, numeric value, etc) is red. 

Basic Operation

#hostame - Displays the hostname and/or FQDN of the system 

#uname -a - Displays the hostname and detailed kernel version 

#cat /etc/redhat-release - Displays the version of Linux installed Example: 

#cat /proc/cpuinfo - Displays information about the CPU(s) 

#df -h - Displays the partitions, their sizes details, and mount points 

#free - Displays detail about the system memory and usage 

#lsof - Displays all open files 

#lsof -nPi:22 - Displays any open files which use port 22 

#locate httpd.conf - Displays the full path to any file named httpd.conf 

#updatedb - Rebuilds index of files for search using the locate utility 

Copy, Move, Delete

#cp file1.txt file2.txt - Copies file1.txt to file2.txt 

#mv old.txt new.txt - Renames a file called old.txt to new.txt 

#rm file1.txt - Deletes file1.txt 

#mkdir httpds - Creates a new directory called httpds 

#cp -R httpd httpds - Recursively copies all files from directory httpd to httpds 

#cp -PR httpd httpds - Recursively copies all files from directory httpd to httpds and retains all permission settings 

#rm -rf httpd - Recursively deletes folder httpd and all contents 

#chkconfig --list - Displays all services and their state (start or stop) at each runlevel 

#chkconfig --level 35 httpd on - Sets httpd to start on runlevels 35 when machine is booted 

#service httpd start - Immediately starts Apache 

File Attributes

#chown apache virtualhosts.txt - Changes ownership of the virtualhosts.txt file to user apache 

#chgrp apache virtualhosts.txt - Changes membership of the virtualhosts.txt file to group apache 

#chmod a+x sniffer.pl - Allows the sniffer.pl file to be executed 

CHMOD

7 rwx read, write, execute 
6 rw- read, write 
5 r-x read, execute 
4 r-- read 
3 -wx write, execute 
2 -w- write 
1 --x execute 
0 --- no permissions 

#chmod 777 passwords.txt - Allows read, write, and execute on the file passwords.txt to anyone 

#chmod 000 passwords.txt - Blocks read, write, and execute on the file passwords.txt to anyone 

Yum

#yum update -y - Updates all packages without prompting 

#yum install iptraf - Installs a package named iptraf 

#yum whatprovides */iostat - Searches all repositories and returns RPMs that provide the program iostat 

#yum update samba - updates a package named samba 

RPM

#rpm -q http - Displays the version of daemon http (apache) 

#rpm -qa | grep bind - Displays all packages installed with the word bind. Example: 


#rpm -qa | grep bind 
bind-chroot-9.3.6-16.P1.el5 
system-config-bind-4.0.3-4.el5.centos 
bind-utils-9.3.6-16.P1.el5 
bind-9.3.6-16.P1.el5 
bind-libs-9.3.6-16.P1.el5 
ypbind-1.19-12.el5 

#rpm -ivh proftpd - Interactively installs proftpd 

#rpm -Uvh proftpd - Interactive upgrades named proftpd 

#rpm -e proftpd - Removes package proftpd 

#rpm --rebuilddb - Rebuilds a corrupt RPM database 

Compressed files

#unzip package.zip - Unzips the file package.zip 

#tar -zvxf stunnel.tar.gz - Decompressed a gzip file named stunnel.tar.gz 

Networking

#ifup eth0 - Enables network interface eth0 

#ifdown eth0 - Disables network interface eth0 

#vi /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 - Uses vi to edit network settings on eth0 

IP tables

#service iptables status - Displays status of iptables (running or not) 

#iptables -L - Displays ruleset of iptables 

#iptables -I INPUT -p tcp -m tcp -s 192.168.15.254/26 --dport 22 -j ACCEPT - Accepts incoming SSH connections from IP range 192.168.15.254/26 
#iptables -I INPUT -p tcp -m tcp -s 0.0.0.0/0 --dport 22 -j DROP - Blocks SSH connections from everywhere else 

#iptables -I INPUT -s "192.168.10.121" -j DROP - Drops all traffic from IP 192.168.10.121 

#iptables -D INPUT -s "192.168.10.121" -j DROP - Removes previously allied drop all from IP 192.168.10.121 

#iptables -I INPUT -s "192.168.10.0/24" -j DROP - Drops all traffic from IP range 192.168.10.0/24 

#iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 25 -j DROP - Blocks all traffic to TCP port 25 

#iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 25 -j ACCEPT - Allows all traffic to TCP port 25 

#iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 53 -j DROP - Blocks all traffic to UDP port 53 

#/etc/init.d/iptables save - Saves all IPtables rules and re-applies them after a reboot

Processes

#ps ax - Displays all running processes 

#ps aux - Displays all running processes including CPU and memory usage of each 

#ps ax | wc -l - Displays the total number of processes 

#top - Interactive process manager which allows sorting by criteria

Logs

#tail -f /var/log/messages - Displays the most current entries to the messages log in real-time 

#tail -50 /var/log/messages - Displays the last 50 lines of the messages log 

#head -50 /var/log/messages - Displays the first 50 lines of the messages log 

#cat /var/log/messages - Displays the entire messages log 

#cat /var/log/messages | grep "FTP session opened" - Displays any entries in the messages log that contain the ext FTP session opened 

#cat /var/log/messages | grep "FTP session opened" > log2.txt - Writes any entries in the messages log that contain the ext FTP session opened to a file named log2.txt 

Paths to Common Files

Bind (named)

/var/named - Bind zone files (non chrooted) 
/etc/named.conf - Bind configuration file (non chrooted) 
/var/named/chroot/var/named - Bind zone files (chrooted) 
/var/named/chroot/etc/named.conf - Bind configuration file (chrooted) 

Apache (httpd)

/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf - Main apache configuration file 
/var/www/html - Default directory for serving pages 
/var/log/httpd/ - Default location for logs (access and error) 

Networking

/etc/hosts - System hosts file 
/etc/resolv.conf - DNS lookup configuration file 
/etc/sysconfig/network - Network/hostname configuration file 
/etc/selinux - SELinux configuration file 
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ - Default location of a network setting file 
/etc/sysconfig/iptables - Default iptables policy configuration file 
/etc/sysconfig/iptables-config - Default iptables daemon configuration file