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Name 10 commands every Linux and Unix admin should know

A

Arkitech

Diamond Member
I'm working on further developing my Unix skills and I'm just curious what some of the experienced admins out there would consider to be 10 essential commands every admin should know.
 
It depends on the flavor for some of these things, IMO.

Other than that you can always learn: sed, awk, and a shell.

ifconfig is generally nice to know too, but most of it is pretty standard.
 
screen
grep
used to, I would have said vi, but now I say nano
ln

There are some commands that are almost too basic worth mentioning, and some you will HAVE to know them to get around on the cli, but here are some very very basic commands:
ls
cd
adduser
passwd
mv
cp
touch
rm
shutdown
 
I don't know sed or awk...I use perl for most of that stuff anyway 😀

ifconfig, less, | (pipe), grep, cat, echo, export, cd, mv, cp, tar

that's 11
 
Originally posted by: Brazen
screen
grep
used to, I would have said vi, but now I say nano
ln

There are some commands that are almost too basic worth mentioning, and some you will HAVE to know them to get around on the cli, but here are some very very basic commands:
ls
cd
adduser
passwd
mv
cp
touch
rm
shutdown
Click to expand...

nano isn't available on all unix and linux systems by default. Being familiar with vi is a necessity, and if you need something more, learn a real editor. Like emacs. 🙂
 
Originally posted by: nweaver
I don't know sed or awk...I use perl for most of that stuff anyway 😀

ifconfig, less, | (pipe), grep, cat, echo, export, cd, mv, cp, tar

that's 11
Click to expand...

I don't know enough perl to replace the little bit of sed/awk I've done. Yet. 😉

I forgot the '|'! How could I have forgotten that? It's quite possibly the most important unix command of them all.
 
ls: You have to be able to see what your files are.
cp: You have to be able to copy your files.
grep: Searching is a must.
cat: See grep.
mv: Moving files.
rm: Removing files.
vi/pico/etc: You need some kind of editor.
ps: You need to see what's going on.
su: You have to switch users.
tar: Everyone has to archive things.


Edit: You really need more than 10.
 
Wow, I have a lot to learn. I know some of the commands you guys listed, but I definitely need to learn grep better. I've never used sed and awk before so I need to add that to the list.

I just built a Linux box this morning running Ubuntu, so I plan to get a lot of practice. I want to move into a contracting position as an admin so I'm going to be spending a lot of time studying and practicing like crazy.
 
Originally posted by: Arkitech
Wow, I have a lot to learn. I know some of the commands you guys listed, but I definitely need to learn grep better. I've never used sed and awk before so I need to add that to the list.

I just built a Linux box this morning running Ubuntu, so I plan to get a lot of practice. I want to move into a contracting position as an admin so I'm going to be spending a lot of time studying and practicing like crazy.
Click to expand...

Don't get overwhelmed with sed and awk. They look absolutely horrible to someone who is unfamiliar with them. They just look averagely horrible to people who are familiar with them. 😉

I use "tail" all of the time at work too (I work in a Unix datacenter at a bank), but I didn't put it in my list since I only got 10 choices.
 
"man man" is obviously the single most important command. In theory that's all you ever need 😛 Can't believe no one's mentioned it yet.

And some people will argue for more, but I like less, more or less.
 
Originally posted by: kamper
"man man" is obviously the single most important command. In theory that's all you ever need 😛 Can't believe no one's mentioned it yet.

And some people will argue for more, but I like less, more or less.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I like more and less. I usually don't think about using them though and just use vi or nano.
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: Brazen
screen
grep
used to, I would have said vi, but now I say nano
ln

There are some commands that are almost too basic worth mentioning, and some you will HAVE to know them to get around on the cli, but here are some very very basic commands:
ls
cd
adduser
passwd
mv
cp
touch
rm
shutdown
Click to expand...

nano isn't available on all unix and linux systems by default. Being familiar with vi is a necessity, and if you need something more, learn a real editor. Like emacs. 🙂
Click to expand...

emacs doesn't appear to be installed on Debian by default. I don't know why you don't like nano, though. It's worked perfect for me, with no learning curve unlike vi.
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

nano isn't available on all unix and linux systems by default. Being familiar with vi is a necessity, and if you need something more, learn a real OS. Like emacs. 🙂
Click to expand...

fixed the bloatware reference 😉

 
Originally posted by: kamper
"man man" is obviously the single most important command. In theory that's all you ever need 😛 Can't believe no one's mentioned it yet.

And some people will argue for more, but I like less, more or less.
Click to expand...

:light:
 
Originally posted by: Brazen
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: Brazen
screen
grep
used to, I would have said vi, but now I say nano
ln

There are some commands that are almost too basic worth mentioning, and some you will HAVE to know them to get around on the cli, but here are some very very basic commands:
ls
cd
adduser
passwd
mv
cp
touch
rm
shutdown
Click to expand...

nano isn't available on all unix and linux systems by default. Being familiar with vi is a necessity, and if you need something more, learn a real editor. Like emacs. 🙂
Click to expand...

emacs doesn't appear to be installed on Debian by default. I don't know why you don't like nano, though. It's worked perfect for me, with no learning curve unlike vi.
Click to expand...


nano is craptastic imho

Once you learn insert, save, quit, save and quit, then VI is as simple as notepad, yet you can do so so so much. I don't really like gvim even, I prefer plain old vim/vi
 
Originally posted by: Brazen
emacs doesn't appear to be installed on Debian by default. I don't know why you don't like nano, though. It's worked perfect for me, with no learning curve unlike vi.
Click to expand...

emacs shouldn't' be installed by default. 🙂

Problems with nano:
It isn't installed by default on every unix.
The interface is different than editors installed on every unix.
It is basically a free pico, and I don't like pico.
vi is easy and powerful.
emacs is easy and powerful.

🙂
 
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: Brazen
emacs doesn't appear to be installed on Debian by default. I don't know why you don't like nano, though. It's worked perfect for me, with no learning curve unlike vi.
Click to expand...

emacs shouldn't' be installed by default. 🙂

Problems with nano:
It isn't installed by default on every unix.
The interface is different than editors installed on every unix.
It is basically a free pico, and I don't like pico.
vi is easy and powerful.
emacs is easy and powerful.

🙂
Click to expand...

Can't we all just use "jed" and get it overwith?
 
Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Originally posted by: Brazen
emacs doesn't appear to be installed on Debian by default. I don't know why you don't like nano, though. It's worked perfect for me, with no learning curve unlike vi.
Click to expand...

emacs shouldn't' be installed by default. 🙂

Problems with nano:
It isn't installed by default on every unix.
The interface is different than editors installed on every unix.
It is basically a free pico, and I don't like pico.
vi is easy and powerful.
emacs is easy and powerful.

🙂
Click to expand...

Can't we all just use "jed" and get it overwith?
Click to expand...

jed is not in Debian by default, either 🙁
 
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