amuck-landowner

Linux VPS cheat sheet. Linux commands for CentOS/RHEL and Ubuntu/Debian

MannDude

Just a dude
vpsBoard Founder
Moderator
Figured this thread could be a handy resource for everyone at all skill-levels. Sometimes you just want to copy and paste a command you've used a hundred times (DD-tests, for example) or are just having a brain fart and forgot how to do something. Well... this thread is for you, my friend! Let's get started!
 
I'm just going to start off with the absolute basics, was planning I'd do several of these and then add more to this post as people respond with additional ones.
 
By the way, the outputs of the commands I show I've done on my Raspberry Pi running Debian on my local network.
 
 
General Commands > The Basics > All Distributions
 
Uptime Command:


uptime

Shows the uptime of a VPS, output example below:


root@rpi-server:~# uptime
 16:11:59 up 12 days,  8:10,  1 user,  load average: 0.08, 0.03, 0.05

Free memory Command


free -m

Shows the available free memory on your Linux system. Read here for more: http://www.linuxatemyram.com/


root@rpi-server:~# free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:           438        379         58          0         49        213
-/+ buffers/cache:        117        321
Swap:            0          0          0

Processes and resources used command:


top

Realtime process and resource usage. You can see your load average, uptime, and processes that are consuming system resources. To exit 'top', just hit 'Q'. You can CTRL + M to sort the processes according to their memory usage from highest to lowest, which can come in handy in figuring out what is using up your RAM. (Thanks [member=wcypierre] for that tip)


root@rpi-server:~# top

top - 16:16:59 up 12 days,  8:15,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.05
Tasks:  65 total,   1 running,  64 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  0.7 us,  0.7 sy,  0.0 ni, 98.7 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem:    448776 total,   389568 used,    59208 free,    50916 buffers
KiB Swap:        0 total,        0 used,        0 free,   218484 cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S  %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND                                                                                                                                  
17744 root      20   0  3112 1304  924 R   1.0  0.3   0:00.27 top                                                                                                                                      
 2081 mysql     20   0  294m  47m 5320 S   0.3 10.8  75:16.16 mysqld                                                                                                                                   
    1 root      20   0  2100  676  576 S   0.0  0.2   0:37.37 init                                                                                                                                     
    2 root      20   0     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.10 kthreadd                                                                                                                                 
    3 root      20   0     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:07.65 ksoftirqd/0                                                                                                                              
    4 root      20   0     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.01 kworker/0:0                                                                                                                              
    5 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kworker/0:0H                                                                                                                             
    6 root      20   0     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   2:02.08 kworker/u:0                                                                                                                              
    7 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kworker/u:0H                                                                                                                             
    8 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 khelper                                                                                                                                  
    9 root      20   0     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kdevtmpfs                                                                                                                                
   10 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 netns                                                                                                                                    
   12 root      20   0     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.25 bdi-default                                                                                                                              
   13 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kblockd                                                                                                                                  
   14 root      20   0     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.22 khubd                                                                                                                                    
   15 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 rpciod                                                                                                                                   
   16 root      20   0     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.66 khungtaskd                                                                                                                               
   17 root      20   0     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:08.23 kswapd0                                                                                                                                  
   18 root      20   0     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 fsnotify_mark                                                                                                                            
   19 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 nfsiod                                                                                                                                   
   20 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 crypto                                                                                                                                   
   27 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kthrotld                                                                                                                                 
   28 root       1 -19     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 VCHIQ-0                                                                                                                                  
   29 root       1 -19     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 VCHIQr-0                                                                                                                                 
   30 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 VCHIQs-0                                                                                                                                 
   31 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 iscsi_eh                                                                                                                                 
   32 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 dwc_otg                                                                                                                                  
   33 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 DWC Notificatio                                                                                                                          
   35 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 deferwq                                                                                                                                  
   36 root      20   0     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kworker/u:2                                                                                                                              
   37 root      20   0     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   6:29.95 mmcqd/0                                                                                                                                  
   38 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:04.70 kworker/0:1H                                                                                                                             
   39 root      20   0     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:22.44 jbd2/mmcblk0p2-                                                                                                                          
   40 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 ext4-dio-unwrit                                                                                                                          
  153 root      20   0  2744  980  608 S   0.0  0.2   0:00.32 udevd                                                                                                                                    
  235 root       0 -20     0    0    0 S   0.0  0.0   0:00.00 bcm2708_spi.0                                                                                                                            
 1371 root      20   0  4852 2280  568 S   0.0  0.5   0:00.23 dhclient                                                                                                                                 
 1574 root      20   0 28060 1576 1064 S   0.0  0.4   0:03.93 rsyslogd                                                                                                                                 
 1609 root      20   0  2248  844  672 S   0.0  0.2   0:05.02 cron                                                                                                                                     
 1717 root      20   0  1712  556  460 S   0.0  0.1   0:00.13 mysqld_safe                                                                                                                              
 1899 root      20   0  6168 1040  620 S   0.0  0.2   0:00.12 sshd                                                                                                                                     
 2082 root      20   0  1804  608  532 S   0.0  0.1   0:00.01 logger                                                                                                                                   
 2174 root      20   0  2200  708  588 S   0.0  0.2   0:00.01 getty                                                                                                                                    
 2175 root      20   0  2200  708  588 S   0.0  0.2   0:00.01 getty                                                                                                                                    
 2176 root      20   0  2200  708  588 S   0.0  0.2   0:00.01 getty                                                                                                                                    
 2177 root      20   0  2200  708  588 S   0.0  0.2   0:00.01 getty                                                                                                                                    
 2178 root      20   0  2200  708  588 S   0.0  0.2   0:00.01 getty                                                                                                                                    
 2179 root      20   0  2200  708  588 S   0.0  0.2   0:00.01 getty                                                                                                                                    
 2804 root      20   0 36296 3520 1252 S   0.0  0.8   1:40.49 php5-fpm

Check disk space used and available command:


df -h

This will check available space on your filesystem. Your output will likely look different depending on the configuration of your server.


root@rpi-server:~# df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
rootfs          7.3G  3.7G  3.6G  51% /
/dev/root       7.3G  3.7G  3.6G  51% /
devtmpfs        212M     0  212M   0% /dev
tmpfs            44M  196K   44M   1% /run
tmpfs           5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
tmpfs            88M     0   88M   0% /run/shm


Change Directory Command:


cd /path/to/directory

This will change the location of the directory your browsing. In the example above, simply change the path to the directory in which you need to change to. For example, if you needed to move to '/var/www', you would type 'cd /var/www'


root@rpi-server:~# cd /var/www
root@rpi-server:/var/www#

List directory content command:


ls

Now that you've moved to the directory of your choice, you may want to get a list of the content from within that directory. Simply enter the 'ls' command. You should see something like:


root@rpi-server:/var/www# ls
bill_murray.jpg  check.php  damncat.jpg  index.php  logo.png  logs  phpinfo.php  phpmyadmin  test  vpsboard
Make Directory command:


mkdir ./mynewdirectory

The command above will create the directory 'mynewdirectory' in whatever directory you are currently in. Maybe you want to go deeper than that, so use the following the command:


mkdir -p ./mynewdirectory/test/testing

The command above not only creates the directory but also all that follows it.
 
 
Move a file command:


mv test.txt ./testdirectory

The above command will the file 'test.txt' to the directory 'testdirectory'. Pretty straight forward.
 
 

Change password command:


passwd

This will change the password for the user you are logged in as. For example, if you are logged in as the root password it's very good practice to change your password immediately. You will be prompted to type in your password, and asked to retype it. Your password will not show in the screen. Output will be similar to below:


root@rpi-server:~# passwd
Enter new UNIX password:
Retype new UNIX password:
passwd: password updated successfully


Check the CPU information command:


cat /proc/cpuinfo

This command will tell you information about the CPU your provider uses for the VPS node you are on. Thank you for submitting this one.


user@not-my-pi:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor    : 0
vendor_id    : GenuineIntel
cpu family    : 6
model        : 42
model name    : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E31230 @ 3.20GHz
stepping    : 7
cpu MHz        : 3192.748
cache size    : 4096 KB
fdiv_bug    : no
hlt_bug        : no
f00f_bug    : no
coma_bug    : no
fpu        : yes
fpu_exception    : yes
cpuid level    : 13
wp        : yes
flags        : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc up arch_perfmon pni pclmulqdq ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic popcnt aes xsave avx hypervisor lahf_lm
bogomips    : 6385.49
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment    : 64
address sizes    : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual



Check memory information command:


cat /proc/meminfo

 Likely not as used as often as the check CPU info command above, but can come in handy. Thank you for submitting this one.


user@not-my-pi:~$ cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal: 254828 kB
MemFree: 9012 kB
Buffers: 45764 kB
Cached: 140528 kB
SwapCached: 1036 kB
Active: 139832 kB
Inactive: 88016 kB
Active(anon): 19448 kB
Inactive(anon): 22164 kB
Active(file): 120384 kB
Inactive(file): 65852 kB
Unevictable: 0 kB
Mlocked: 0 kB
HighTotal: 0 kB
HighFree: 0 kB
LowTotal: 254828 kB
LowFree: 9012 kB
SwapTotal: 496632 kB
SwapFree: 490712 kB
Dirty: 216 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
AnonPages: 40804 kB
Mapped: 11764 kB
Shmem: 56 kB
Slab: 12616 kB
SReclaimable: 8924 kB
SUnreclaim: 3692 kB
KernelStack: 640 kB
PageTables: 700 kB
NFS_Unstable: 0 kB
Bounce: 0 kB
WritebackTmp: 0 kB
CommitLimit: 624044 kB
Committed_AS: 229688 kB
VmallocTotal: 765952 kB
VmallocUsed: 5628 kB
VmallocChunk: 752772 kB
HardwareCorrupted: 0 kB
HugePages_Total: 0
HugePages_Free: 0
HugePages_Rsvd: 0
HugePages_Surp: 0
Hugepagesize: 4096 kB
DirectMap4k: 12280 kB
DirectMap4M: 249856 kB

Stop/Start/Restart (most) services:


service [service name] [stop/start/restart/reload/status]
OR


/etc/init.d/[service name] [stop/start/restart/reload/status]

The examples below will use both methods to start/stop/status Nginx and MySQL as it's what is running on my Raspberry Pi right now.


root@rpi-server:~# service nginx restart
Restarting nginx: nginx.

Code:
root@rpi-server:~# service nginx status
[ ok ] nginx is running.
Code:
root@rpi-server:~# /etc/init.d/nginx stop
Stopping nginx: nginx.
Code:
root@rpi-server:~# /etc/init.d/nginx start
Starting nginx: nginx.
Code:
root@rpi-server:~# /etc/init.d/mysql status
[info] /usr/bin/mysqladmin  Ver 8.42 Distrib 5.5.31, for debian-linux-gnu on armv7l
Copyright (c) 2000, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Server version		5.5.31-0+wheezy1
Protocol version	10
Connection		Localhost via UNIX socket
UNIX socket		/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock
Uptime:			12 days 16 hours 14 min 34 sec

Threads: 1  Questions: 24062  Slow queries: 0  Opens: 1532  Flush tables: 1  Open tables: 293  Queries per second avg: 0.021.
Thanks [member=wcypierre] for sharing.




Change File Permissions command:


chmod 755 file-or-directory
Need to change the file or folder permissions? Do it quickly via SSH! The example below shows me simply changing the permissions of the directory 'testdir' to 755. Thanks [member=wcypierre] for sharing.


root@rpi-server:/var/www# chmod 755 testdir
root@rpi-server:/var/www#



 
 
 
 
Please contribute to this thread!
 
If you wish to contribute, I'll add your responses to this original posting so all commands are in one post for easy retrieval and use. I'll link to your profile or response to give credit where it is due.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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wcypierre

New Member
1. at the Top command, press CTRL + M to sort the processes according to their memory usage(from highest to lowest)

2. service <service_name> <action: start/restart/stop/reload> i.e service nginx stop

3. chmod <permissions> <file/folder>
 

H_Heisenberg

New Member
cat /etc/issue

Easy way to find out which Linux Distribution is installed on the VPS/server/machine.


Remove/disable/add/enable services in RHEL based OSs (CentOS/SL/Fedora):


Add/enable & disable:
chkconfig <servicenamehere> <option>

Options:
off - disable
on - enable/add

E.g: chkconfig httpd off (will disable httpd as a server so it won't startup with the OS)


Remove services totally:
chkconfig --del <servicename>

E.g: chkconfig --del httpd (will delete httpd completely from the service list)



Copy files:


cp <path/to/file> <path/to/destination>

For folders with files use:
cp -r <path/to/file> <path/to/destination>

-r is for recursive

There is way more that is just simply and applies for all Distros but I'm too lazy :p.

Oh: "ifconfig" is good, too.
 
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WebSearchingPro

VPS Peddler
Verified Provider
uname -a

Check what linux kernel + architecture is running

setenforce 0 | 1

Disables and Enables SELinux till the system reboots (good for quick tests)

restorecon -R /path/to/dir/

Fixes issues relating to SELinux and file permissions

setsebool -P module_name=0|1

Enable or disable certain SELinux modules.

semanage port -a -t http_port_t-p tcp #

Allows using a port other than 8080|80 on a SELinux installation.

rpm --nosignature -i


Quickly add repo to RHEL distro.


 


cat /etc/passwd


cat /etc/group


Check users and groups on the system


 


su [username]


Quickly switch accounts


 


ls -l


Check file ownership quickly.


 


curl -i

{option}
{option}Check if apache/nginx/varnish is running on that particular url.
 
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drmike

100% Tier-1 Gogent
Get process that is running info:

ps -aux | grep ______   [where ___ = whatever you are looking for]

ex: ps -aux | grep apache

Stopping a process that is abandoned or crashed:

kill -9 [process #]

That process number comes from finding the process above.
 

D. Strout

Resident IPv6 Proponent
A few more:

nano [filename] - opens the nano editor to edit the file. After editing, Ctrl + O saves the file, and Ctrl + X exits.

For testing:

dd bs=1M count=1024 if=/dev/zero of=test conv=fdatasync - copy 1GB of test stuff to the hard drive for disk speed test

wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test - Download a 100MB test file from Cachefly's CDN for network speed tests.
 

GIANT_CRAB

New Member
I can't believe you guys missed out the yum command.

Its the most powerful command ever.

This commands does everything magically for you.

yum install - Install a software via yum repo

yum update - Update all your softwares to the latest via yum repo

yum remove - Remove softwares you do not want or not longer need via yum repo

Btw, MannDude, its GNU/Linux, Linux is just a kernel. It wouldn't function without GNU.

4D3Ims2.jpg
lel
 
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patz

New Member
Get logged in users:


who
Get current user:


who am i
It's the who command with 2 arguments, so who is it, or who mom loves all have the same results.

Get logged in users and what they are doing:


w
Get users that logged in over time, their ip, last log in time and log in duration.

Code:
last
 

MannDude

Just a dude
vpsBoard Founder
Moderator
Thanks for all the contributions, will be adding them to the original post later!
 

acd

New Member
Get process that is running info:

ps -aux | grep ______   [where ___ = whatever you are looking for]

ex: ps -aux | grep apache
More pgrep, please:

pgrep processname (see manpage for more filtering options, and there are a lot of them)

see full info for grepped processes:

ps -fp $(pgrep -d, processname)
 

mitgib

New Member
Verified Provider
Some common commands I use that are not already listed above

lsof - list open files

lsof -i:port ex lsof -i:80 to find if the web server is listening 

lsof -pPID - what does PID have open, great for finding IO abusers after finding them in iotop

iotop - simple top-like I/O monitor

iotop -d 3 -oPk
 
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