This interactive cheat sheet provides a quick reference for common Ubuntu commands. Click the copy icon next to any command to quickly copy it to your clipboard!
uname -a
Displays all system information.
hostnamectl
Shows current hostname and related details.
lscpu
Lists CPU architecture information.
timedatectl status
Shows system time and date.
top
Displays real-time system processes.
htop
An interactive process viewer (needs installation).
df -h
Shows disk usage in a human-readable format.
free -m
Displays free and used memory in MB.
kill <process id>
Terminates a running process.
[command] &
Runs command in the background.
jobs
Displays background commands.
fg <command number>
Brings command to the foreground.
pwd
Displays the current directory path.
cd <directory>
Changes the current directory.
mkdir <dirname>
Creates a new directory.
sudo systemctl start <service>
Starts a service.
sudo systemctl stop <service>
Stops a service.
sudo systemctl status <service>
Checks the status of a service.
sudo systemctl reload <service>
Reloads a service’s configuration.
journalctl -f
Follows the journal, showing new log messages.
journalctl -u <unit_name>
Displays logs for a specific systemd unit.
nano [file]
Opens a file in the Nano text editor.
cat <file>
Displays the contents of a file.
less <file>
Displays the paginated content of a file.
head <file>
Shows the first few lines of a file.
tail <file>
Shows the last few lines of a file.
awk '{print}' [file]
Prints every line in a file.
crontab -e
Edits cron jobs for the current user.
crontab -l
Lists cron jobs for the current user.
tar -czvf <name.tar.gz> [files]
Compresses files into a tar.gz archive.
tar -xvf <name.tar.[gz|bz|xz]>
Extracts a compressed tar archive.
ls
Lists files and directories.
touch <filename>
Creates an empty file or updates the last accessed date.
cp <source> <destination>
Copies files from source to destination.
mv <source> <destination>
Moves files or renames them.
rm <filename>
Deletes a file.
grep <search_pattern> <file>
Searches for a pattern within a file.
find [directory] -name <search_pattern>
Finds files by name within a directory.
sudo apt install <package>
Installs a package.
apt search <package>
Searches for APT packages.
apt-cache policy <package>
Lists available package versions.
sudo apt update
Updates package lists.
sudo apt upgrade
Upgrades all upgradable packages.
sudo apt remove <package>
Removes a package.
sudo apt purge <package>
Removes a package and all its configuration files.
snap find
Search for Snap packages.
sudo snap install <snap_name>
Installs a Snap package.
sudo snap remove <snap_name>
Removes a Snap package.
sudo snap refresh
Updates all installed Snap packages.
snap list
Lists all installed Snap packages.
snap info <snap_name>
Displays information about a Snap package.
w
Shows which users are logged in.
sudo adduser <username>
Creates a new user.
sudo deluser <username>
Deletes a user.
sudo passwd <username>
Sets or changes the password for a user.
su <username>
Switches user.
sudo passwd -l <username>
Locks a user account.
sudo passwd -u <username>
Unlocks a user password.
sudo chage <username>
Sets user password expiration date.
id [username]
Displays user and group IDs.
groups [username]
Shows the groups a user belongs to.
sudo addgroup <groupname>
Creates a new group.
sudo delgroup <groupname>
Deletes a group.
ip addr show
Displays network interfaces and IP addresses.
ip -s link
Shows network statistics.
ss -l
Shows listening sockets.
ping <'host'>
Pings a host and outputs results.
cat /etc/netplan/*.yaml
Displays the current Netplan configuration.
sudo netplan try
Tests a new configuration for a set period of time.
sudo netplan apply
Applies the current Netplan configuration.
sudo ufw status
Displays the status of the firewall.
sudo ufw enable
Enables the firewall.
sudo ufw disable
Disables the firewall.
sudo ufw allow <port/service>
Allows traffic on a specific port or service.
sudo ufw deny <port/service>
Denies traffic on a specific port or service.
sudo ufw delete allow/deny -|-
Deletes an existing rule.
ssh <user@host>
Connects to a remote host via SSH.
scp <user@host>:<destination>
Securely copies files between hosts.