The Linux Command Line for Developers: 30 Commands

The terminal is a superpower you're probably underusing. The commands that make you dramatically faster.

Linux2026-06-1210 min readLinux · Shell

In this guide

  1. Navigation
  2. Files
  3. Search
  4. Pipes — the composability trick
  5. Processes and disk
  6. The daily dozen

The command line rewards fluency like nothing else. These are the commands we reach for every single day — grouped so they stick.

bash
pwd               # where am I
ls -la            # list all, including hidden
cd -              # jump back to previous directory
cd ~ && cd /      # home, then root
tree -L 2         # visual directory tree

Files

bash
cp -r src dst     # copy recursively
mv old new        # rename / move
rm -rf dir        # delete (CAREFUL — no undo)
touch file.txt    # create empty file
cat file.txt      # print contents
less big.log      # page through a large file
tail -f app.log   # follow a log live
bash
grep -r "TODO" src/          # recursive search
grep -i "error" app.log          # case-insensitive
find . -name "*.py"              # find by name
find . -mtime -1                 # modified in last day
history | grep "docker"          # search your command history

Pipes — the composability trick

bash
cat access.log | grep 404 | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | head
# count the most common 404 URLs, ranked

Pipes are why the shell is so powerful: every command reads text and writes text, so they chain like LEGO.

Processes and disk

bash
ps aux | grep node      # find a process
kill -9 <pid>          # force kill
htop                   # interactive process monitor
df -h                  # disk usage
du -sh *               # size of each thing here
free -h                # memory

The daily dozen

bash
curl -s https://api.example.com | jq .   # fetch + pretty-print JSON
ssh user@host                    # remote shell
scp file.txt user@host:~/        # copy over ssh
chmod +x script.sh               # make executable
tar -czf out.tar.gz dir/         # compress
tar -xzf out.tar.gz              # extract
Learn grep, awk and sed properly and you can do in one line what would take an hour in a spreadsheet.

You don't need to memorise all 30 today. Pick five, use them until they're automatic, then add five more.

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