su switch user

su - switch to root
passwd change user's password
login sign into a new system
logout log out of a system
logname retun users login name

useradd create a new user or update default new user information

userdel remove a user account
usermod modify a user account
groupadd create a new group account
groupdel enable a super user or root to remove a group
groupmod enable a super user or root to modify a group
who display who is on the system
whois internet user name directory service
hostid print the numeric identifier for the current host
hostname set or print the name of the currnet host system
finger list information about the user

exit exit shell

reboot reboot the system
shutdown shutdown the system
shutdown -r minutes shutdown the system after the specified number of minutes
poweroff/halt stop the computer
sleep wait for x seconds to sleep

date set/display date and time

settime change file access and modificaiton time
cal calendar
time used to time a simple command

clear clear screen

echo display message on screen
printf write formatted output
df display free disk space
uname show system information
whereis locate a binary, source, and manual page files for a command
env display environment variables
set set the value of an environment variable
setenv set the value of an environment variable
ftp enable ftp access to another terminal
telnet open a login session on the specified host
ping send an echo request via TCP/IP to the specified host
netstat show network status
mount/umount mount or unmount file systems and remote resources

jobs list the jobs currently running in the background

fg continue a stopped job by running it in the foreground
bg continue a stopped job in the background
stop cancel a process execution
ps report the process status
ps -ef display full information about each of the processes now running
kill cancel a job, a process
which locate a command

. current directory
.. father directory
~ home directory
$HOME home directory

pwd print working directory

ls display directory contents
ls -l display directory contents in details

cd/chdir change directory

mkdir make directory
mv change directory or file's name from src to tar or move the src into the
rmdir remove an existing directory (directory must not be empty)
rm remove files
rm -r remove directories (even not be empty)
rm -rf remove all files and subdirectories (dangerous command)
cp copy file
cp -r copy directory
chmod change the permission of a file
chown change the owner of a file
diff display two files and print the lines that are different
cmp compare two files
grep search for file(s) with given string, find text within a file
find . -print | sort print the current directory's structure
sort sort files
cat view and/or modify a file
more display file contents to screen (1 page at a time)
less opposite of more
head display the first part of the file
tail display the last part of the file
wc display a count of lines, words, and characters in a file

tar compress or expand files

tar -cvvf file.tar myfile.txt
tar -cvvf home.tar home/
tar -xvvf myfile.tar
tar -xvzf myfile.tar.gz -C destdir
gzip/gunzip/gzcat
achieve a tar file
extract the file from a tar file
compress or expand files