As a devops engineer some time you may require to manage your Linux systems. You may require to create, manage, locate some files or directory in your Linux System. Here are some Linux file management commands given as follows.
| Command | Example | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
ls |
ls or ls /path/to/directory |
List files and directories in the current directory or a specified path. |
ls -l |
ls -l |
List files and directories in long format, showing details like permissions, owner, size, and modification time. |
ls -a |
ls -a |
List all files and directories, including hidden ones (those starting with a dot). |
pwd |
pwd |
Print the current working directory. |
cd |
cd /path/to/directory |
Change the current directory to the specified path. |
touch |
touch filename.txt |
Create an empty file with the specified filename. |
mkdir |
mkdir directoryname |
Create a new directory with the specified name. |
rmdir |
rmdir directoryname |
Remove an empty directory with the specified name. |
rm |
rm filename.txt |
Remove (delete) a file. Use with caution; it’s irreversible. |
rm -r |
rm -r directoryname |
Remove a directory and its contents recursively. Use with caution. |
cp |
cp file.txt /path/to/destination |
Copy a file to a specified destination. |
cp -r |
cp -r directory /path/to/destination |
Copy a directory and its contents recursively to a specified destination. |
mv |
mv file.txt newfilename.txt |
Move (rename) a file or directory to a new name/location. |
ln |
ln -s sourcefile linkfile |
Create a symbolic (soft) link to a file or directory. |
find |
find /path/to/search -name "file.txt" |
Search for files or directories within a specified path based on various criteria. |
grep |
grep "pattern" file.txt |
Search for a specific text pattern in a file. |
chmod |
chmod permissions filename |
Change file permissions (read, write, execute) for a file. |
chown |
chown user:group filename |
Change the owner and group of a file or directory. |
df |
df -h |
Display disk space usage in a human-readable format. |
du |
du -h directoryname |
Show disk usage of files and directories in a human-readable format. |
tar |
tar -cvzf archive.tar.gz directoryname |
Create a compressed tar archive of a directory. |
tar |
tar -xvzf archive.tar.gz |
Extract files from a compressed tar archive. |
zip |
zip -r archive.zip directoryname |
Create a zip archive of a directory. |
unzip |
unzip archive.zip |
Extract files from a zip archive. |
cat |
cat file.txt |
Display the content of a text file. |
more or less |
more file.txt or less file.txt |
View the content of a file page by page. |
head and tail |
head -n 10 file.txt or tail -n 10 file.txt |
Display the first or last N lines of a file, respectively. |
mv |
mv oldfile.txt newfile.txt |
Rename a file. |
wc |
wc -l file.txt |
Count the number of lines in a file. |
sort and uniq |
sort file.txt or `sort file.txt |
uniq` |
touch |
touch -t 202301011200 file.txt |
Change the timestamp of a file to a specific date and time. |
If you are interested to become a Certified Linux Administrator the best way is to prepare for RedHat System Administration certification (RHCSA) with AEM Kolkata. AEM provides RHCSA Training in Kolkata Since 2004.
Cybersecurity Architect | Cloud-Native Defense | AI/ML Security | DevSecOps
With over 23 years of experience in cybersecurity, I specialize in building resilient, zero-trust digital ecosystems across multi-cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP) and Kubernetes (EKS, AKS, GKE) environments. My journey began in network security—firewalls, IDS/IPS—and expanded into Linux/Windows hardening, IAM, and DevSecOps automation using Terraform, GitLab CI/CD, and policy-as-code tools like OPA and Checkov.
Today, my focus is on securing AI/ML adoption through MLSecOps, protecting models from adversarial attacks with tools like Robust Intelligence and Microsoft Counterfit. I integrate AISecOps for threat detection (Darktrace, Microsoft Security Copilot) and automate incident response with forensics-driven workflows (Elastic SIEM, TheHive).
Whether it’s hardening cloud-native stacks, embedding security into CI/CD pipelines, or safeguarding AI systems, I bridge the gap between security and innovation—ensuring defense scales with speed.
Let’s connect and discuss the future of secure, intelligent infrastructure.