Commands#

• lsb_release -a - distro info

• printenv - list all environment variables

• where - Reports all known instances of a command. It could be an executable in the PATH environment variable, an alias, or a shell builtin.

• whereis - Locate the binary, source, and manual page files for a command.

• which - Locate a program in the user’s path.

• whatis - Display one-line descriptions from manual pages.

• locate - find files by name, quickly

• stat: Displays file or file system status, providing detailed information.

  • stat <filename>
  • stat -f <path_to_filesystem_mount_point>

• file : show file information

• lsof (List Open Files): Lists information about files opened by processes. https://linux.die.net/man/8/lsof ↗

  • lsof
  • sudo lsof -i :<port_number> (e.g., sudo lsof -i :22)

Disk Info#

• lsblk - disk/partition info
• df - shows storage info

HW info#

• lshw: List Hardware. Provides detailed information about the machine’s hardware configuration. https://linux.die.net/man/1/lshw ↗

  • sudo lshw
  • sudo lshw -c <class> (e.g., sudo lshw -c cpu, sudo lshw -c memory, sudo lshw -c network, sudo lshw -c disk)

• lspci and lsusb to list PCI and USB devices, respectively.

• dmidecode to retrieve information from the DMI/BIOS

System Management#

• top - display linux processes

• journalctl - view logs

• • journalctl -u [service] - view logs of a specific service
• • journalctl -fu [service] - follow mode. (live)’

• watch: Executes a program periodically, showing its output and errors. https://linux.die.net/man/1/watch ↗

  • watch [options] <command> (e.g., watch -n 0.5 nvidia-smi)

• systemd-analyze blame: Prints a list of all running units, ordered by the time they took to initialize during boot. https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-analyze.html ↗

  • systemd-analyze blame

• systemd-analyze critical-chain: Prints a tree of the time-critical chain of units during boot. https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-analyze.html ↗

  • systemd-analyze critical-chain [unit_name...]

Tools#

• z (zoxide): A smarter cd command that learns your frequently and recently used directories. https://github.com/ajeetdsouza/zoxide ↗
  • z <partial_directory_name>
  • zi (Interactive selection)
• fzf (Fuzzy Finder): A command-line fuzzy finder for interactively filtering lists. https://github.com/junegunn/fzf ↗
  • history | fzf (Search command history)
  • ls | fzf (Find a file in the current directory)
• exa: A modern replacement for ls with more features like colors, tree view, Git integration, and icons. https://github.com/ogham/exa ↗
  • exa
  • exa -l (Long format)
  • exa -T (Tree view)
• bat: https://github.com/sharkdp/bat ↗
• eza: https://github.com/eza-community/eza ↗
• ncdu: Disk usage analyzer with an ncurses interface. It helps you see which directories and files are consuming the most space. https://dev.yorhel.nl/ncdu/man ↗
  • ncdu (Navigate with arrow keys, see sizes, delete files/directories)
• duf: Disk Usage/Free utility. Provides a user-friendly, colorized overview of mounted filesystems and their usage. https://github.com/muesli/duf ↗
  • duf
• rsync - transfer and sync files
• rg (ripgrep): A very fast, line-oriented search tool that recursively searches your current directory for a regex pattern. https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep ↗
  • rg <pattern> [path] (e.g., rg "my_function", rg "def ", rg "API key")
• fd: A simple, fast, and user-friendly alternative to find. https://github.com/sharkdp/fd ↗
  • fd <pattern> (Searches recursively and case-insensitively by default)
• glances: A cross-platform system monitoring tool displaying a large amount of system information. https://nicolargo.github.io/glances/ ↗
  • glances
• iotop: A top-like utility for displaying I/O usage by processes. https://github.com/dgibson/iotop ↗
  • sudo iotop
• dstat: A versatile replacement for vmstat, iostat, netstat, and ifstat for viewing system resources. https://github.com/dstat-team/dstat ↗
  • dstat
  • dstat -tcmsdn (Time, cpu, memory, swap, disk, network)
  • dstat --top-cpu
• progress: Monitors the progress of coreutils basic commands like cp, mv, dd, tar, etc. https://github.com/Xfennec/progress ↗
  • progress (Run in a separate terminal while another command is active)
• direnv: https://direnv.net/ ↗
• kubectx and kubens: https://github.com/ahmetb/kubectx ↗
• iperf3: https://iperf.fr/ ↗

Networking#

• tcpdump: https://www.tcpdump.org/ ↗
• termshark: A terminal user interface for tshark (Wireshark’s command-line version) to analyze network traffic. https://github.com/gcla/termshark ↗
  • sudo termshark
  • sudo termshark -Y "dns" (Filter for DNS traffic)
• dog: A command-line DNS client, often user-friendly and feature-rich. https://github.com/ogham/dog ↗
  • dog <domain_name> [record_type]
• ipcalc: Performs IP subnet calculations. https://github.com/border/ipcalc ↗
  • ipcalc <IP_address>[/CIDR_or_netmask] (e.g., ipcalc 10.7.8.94/18)
• mtr (My Traceroute): Network diagnostic tool combining ping and traceroute functionality, showing route and performance. https://www.bitwizard.nl/mtr/ ↗
  • mtr <hostname_or_IP>

misc#

• jq: https://jqlang.github.io/jq/ ↗
• cmatrix: https://github.com/abishekvashok/cmatrix ↗
• wormhole (magic-wormhole): A tool to securely transfer files and directories between computers using a “wormhole code”. https://github.com/magic-wormhole/magic-wormhole ↗
  • Sender: wormhole send <filename>
  • Receiver: wormhole receive <code>
• mosh (Mobile Shell): A remote terminal application for robust connections, supporting roaming and intermittent connectivity. https://mosh.org ↗
  • mosh [user@]hostname (Requires Mosh on client and server)

• we can use the tool pimpmykali ↗ to update and setup our kali instance