The system’s standard utilities are a collection of essential software programs included with Unix-like operating systems. These utilities offer a wide range of functionalities crucial for managing, configuring, and maintaining the operating system.
As a Linux administrator, familiarity with these basic tools is imperative. You will rely on them daily, so it is important to become proficient in their use.
Used to compress and archive files and directories to save space or bundle multiple files together.
zip: A utility for packaging files into a compressed archive.unzip: A utility for extracting files from a compressed archive created by zip.tar: A utility for creating and manipulating archive files, often used in conjunction with compression utilities like gzip and bzip2.gzip: A compression utility designed to reduce the size of files.bzip2: A compression utility that offers higher compression ratios than gzip.xz: A compression utility that provides high compression ratios and supports various compression algorithms.More: File Compression and Archiving Utilities
Manage files and directories, including copying, moving, deleting, and listing files.
cp: Copy files and directories.mv: Move or rename files and directories.rm: Remove files or directories.ls: List directory contents.find: Search for files and directories.df: Report file system disk space usage.More: File Management
Monitor system performance, resource usage, and running processes.
top: Display and update sorted information about processes.htop (Not installed by default): An interactive process viewer for Unix systems.ps: Report a snapshot of current processes.free: Display the amount of free and used memory in the system.df: Report file system disk space usage.iotop: Display I/O usage by processes or threads.Manage and diagnose network connections and data transfers.
ping: Check the network connectivity between your system and another host.ifconfig: Configure and display network interface parameters for a network using TCP/IP.netstat: Display network connections, routing tables, interface statistics, masquerade connections, and multicast memberships.curl: Transfer data from or to a server using various protocols such as HTTP, FTP, and more.wget: Retrieve files from the web using HTTP, HTTPS, and FTP protocols.Process and manipulate text files and streams.
grep: Search for patterns within text files.awk: A powerful programming language for pattern scanning and processing.sed: Stream editor for filtering and transforming text.sort: Sort lines of text files.cut: Remove sections from each line of files.More: Text Processing Utilities
Configure and manage system services and settings.
systemctl: Control the systemd system and service manager.crontab: Schedule and manage recurring tasks.hostnamectl: Query and change the system hostname and related settings.systemd: An init system and system manager that provides a suite of tools for managing system services, logging, and other system functions.
service: A utility to run System V init scripts, which are used to start, stop, and manage system services.
chkconfig: A tool to manage the runlevel settings of system services.
update-rc.d: A utility to install and remove System V init script links.
systemctl: A command to introspect and control the state of the systemd system and service manager.
journalctl: A command to query and display messages from the systemd journal.
sysctl: A tool to modify kernel parameters at runtime.
init: The parent of all processes, responsible for starting system processes as defined in /etc/inittab.
telinit: A command to change the system runlevel.
rcconf: A utility to manage the startup of services.
supervisord: A process control system that allows users to monitor and control a number of processes on UNIX-like operating systems.
More: Service Management & Configuration Utilities
cron: A time-based job scheduler that allows users to run scripts or commands at specified times and intervals. It is commonly used for automating system maintenance or administration tasks.More: System scheduler and recurring tasks management
More: Package Management
More: Shell
cloud-init: A tool used to initialize cloud instances during boot time. It handles tasks such as setting up SSH keys, configuring network interfaces, and running user-defined scripts. It is widely used in cloud environments to automate the initial configuration of virtual machines.More: Cloud computing system tools