20 Linux Commands for System Administrator

Linux offers countless commands and utilities, which help you perform your system administration tasks quickly and efficiently.

Your work as system admin includes installing and running software, controlling access, monitoring, ensuring availability, backups, restoring backups, and of course firefighting. 😜

In this article, we review some of the commands frequently used by Linux system administrators in their day to day work.

uname

Use uname command with the -a flag to print system information. This command will show you the kernel name, kernel release, kernel version, hostname, processor type & your hardware platform information.

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu18 5.3.0-1028-azure #29~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jun 5 14:32:34 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Here is what this means:

kernel name:Linux 
hostname: ubuntu18 
kernel release: 5.3.0-1028-azure 
kernel version: #29~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jun 5 14:32:34 UTC 2020 
machine hardware name: x86_64 
processor: x86_64 
hardware-platform: x86_64 
operating system: GNU/Linux

df

Use df command to verify the size of the filesystem and the space available. This command used by itself shows output in 1K blocks.

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ df 
Filesystem     1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev              437208       0    437208   0% /dev
tmpfs              91100     692     90408   1% /run
/dev/sda1       30309264 2383952  27908928   8% /
....

Option -h shows output in a human-readable format, that is in MB and GB.

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev            427M     0  427M   0% /dev
tmpfs            89M  692K   89M   1% /run
/dev/sda1        29G  2.3G   27G   8% /
tmpfs           445M     0  445M   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
tmpfs           445M     0  445M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda15      105M  3.6M  101M   4% /boot/efi
/dev/sdb1       3.9G   16M  3.7G   1% /mnt
tmpfs            89M     0   89M   0% /run/user/1001

To ignore any file system, for example, tmpfs, that is for a cleaner output, use flag -x

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ df -h -x tmpfs
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev            427M     0  427M   0% /dev
/dev/sda1        29G  2.3G   27G   8% /
/dev/sda15      105M  3.6M  101M   4% /boot/efi
/dev/sdb1       3.9G   16M  3.7G   1% /mnt

To list a specific filesystem type only, use -t flag. for example, to view only ext4 filesystem:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ df -h -t ext4
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1        29G  2.3G   27G   8% /
/dev/sdb1       3.9G   16M  3.7G   1% /mnt

Using total flag will add a line showing grand totals:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ df -h -t ext4 --total
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1        29G  2.3G   27G   8% /
/dev/sdb1       3.9G   16M  3.7G   1% /mnt
<b>total            33G  2.3G   31G   8% -</b>

du

To check disk space usage in a directory, use du command. For example to see disk space usage in the /var/log directory. Use -h flag for human-readable format.

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ sudo du -h /var/log
24K	/var/log/Microsoft/Azure/NetworkWatcherAgent/Logs
28K	/var/log/Microsoft/Azure/NetworkWatcherAgent
32K	/var/log/Microsoft/Azure
36K	/var/log/Microsoft
60K	/var/log/apt
4.0K	/var/log/samba
177M	/var/log/journal/0f4f926f583b4691af7de11025b19ff6
177M	/var/log/journal
...
204M	/var/log

To see only the total usage only use -s (summary) flag.

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ sudo du -hs /var/log
204M	/var/log

free

Use free command to see total, used, and free system memory. Use -h flag for human-readable format.

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ free -h
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           889M        272M        100M        712K        517M        443M
Swap:            0B          0B          0B

total - Total installed memory (memtotal + swaptotal)
used - used memory
free - unused memory (memfree + swapfree)
buffers - memory used by kernel buffers
cache - memory used by page caches
buff/cache - sum of buffers and cache
available - Estimated memory available for starting new applications, without swapping

ps

Use ps to display status information about processes running on the system. To see all processes owned by user ubuntu, use -u flag with the user name:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ ps -u ubuntu
   PID TTY          TIME CMD
  7804 ?        00:00:00 systemd
  7805 ?        00:00:00 (sd-pam)
  7940 ?        00:00:00 sshd
  7941 pts/0    00:00:00 bash
  8111 ?        00:00:00 sshd
  8112 pts/1    00:00:00 bash
 13868 ?        00:00:00 sshd
 13869 pts/2    00:00:00 bash
 13885 pts/0    00:00:00 man
 13895 pts/0    00:00:00 pager
 18111 pts/2    00:00:00 man
 18121 pts/2    00:00:00 pager
 18485 pts/1    00:00:00 ps

To view all processes run ps with aux flags:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ ps aux
USER        PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root          1  0.0  0.7 160076  7020 ?        Ss   Jun29   0:34 /sbin/init
root          2  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        S    Jun29   0:00 [kthreadd]
root          3  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        I<   Jun29   0:00 [rcu_gp]
root          4  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        I<   Jun29   0:00 [rcu_par_gp]
root          6  0.0  0.0      0     0 ?        I<   Jun29   0:00 [kworker/0:0H-kb]
....

where

Heading	Meaning
PID	Process Identification Number
%CPU	Percentage of CPU time the process is using
%MEM	Percentage of RAM process is using
VSZ	Virtual memory being used in KB
RSS	Physical memory the process is using in KB
TTY	Terminal associated with the process
STAT	R – Running or ready to run, S – Sleeping, I – Idle, T – Stopped, Z – Zombie, D – Waiting for Disk I/O, X – Dead, W – Swapped out, N – Low priority process, < – High priority process

top

While ps command shows a snapshot of the state of processes at any moment, top shows a continuously updating (every three seconds, by default) list of system processes in order of process activity.

The top command output consists of two main parts: The system summary at the top and the table of processes sorted by CPU activity.

top - 14:25:32 up 44 days, 11:37,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Tasks: 114 total,   1 running,  59 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
%Cpu(s):  0.3 us,  0.0 sy,  0.0 ni, 99.7 id,  0.0 wa,  0.0 hi,  0.0 si,  0.0 st
KiB Mem :   910992 total,   101208 free,   274712 used,   535072 buff/cache
KiB Swap:        0 total,        0 free,        0 used.   458492 avail Mem 

   PID USER      PR  NI    VIRT    RES    SHR S %CPU %MEM     TIME+ COMMAND    
 50497 ubuntu    20   0   44528   3944   3368 R  0.7  0.4   0:00.15 top        
     1 root      20   0  160076   7020   4400 S  0.0  0.8   0:34.85 systemd    
     2 root      20   0       0      0      0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.08 kthreadd   
     3 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 rcu_gp     
     4 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 rcu_par_gp 
     6 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kworker/0:+
     9 root       0 -20       0      0      0 I  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 mm_percpu_+

Some of the fields in the system summary are as follows:

Uptime. Time since the machine was last booted.

load average

Load average refers to the number of processes that are waiting to run, value less than 1.0 means the machine is not busy. There are 3 values. First is the average of the last 60 seconds, second is the average of the last 5 minutes and the third shows the average of the last 15 minutes.

%Cpu(s)

This row describes the activities of the CPU.

0.3 us, user	0.3% CPU is being used for user processes.
0.0 sy, system	0.0% CPU is being used for system processes.
0.0 ni, nice	0.0% CPU is being used by low priority(nice) processes
99.7 id, idle	99.7% CPU is idle
0.0 wa, IO-wait	0.0% CPU is waiting for I/O
0.0 hi	time spent on hardware interrupts
0.0 si	time spent on software interrupts
0.0 st	time stone from this VM by the hypervisor

Process table fields are as follows:

PID	Process Identification Number
USER	Process owner
PR	Priority
NI	Nice value
VIRT	Virtual memory used by the process (KB)
RES	Physical memory used by the process
SHR	Shared memory used by the process
S	Process status. R – Running, S – sleeping, I – Idle, T – stopped, Z – zombie, D – waiting for disk I/O, W- swapped out, X – dead
%CPU	CPU time process is using in percentage
%MEM	The physical memory process is using
TIME[+]	Total CPU time used by the process
COMMAND	Name of the program

While top is running, you can issue a number of commands. Press h or ? to see commands which can be run while top is running. Press k to kill a process. Press q to quit top.

dig

dig is a great tool for DNS queries. It is used as follows :

dig <DNS server> <domain> <query-type>

where

<DNS server> is the DNS server name you wish to query
<domain> is the domain name you wish to query about
<query-type> is the name of the record you wish to know – A, MX, NS SOA, etc.

To suppress verbose output, use +short flag.

To view A record for google.com use:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ dig google.com +short
172.217.164.174

To see MX records for google.com use:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ dig google.com MX  +short
50 alt4.aspmx.l.google.com.
10 aspmx.l.google.com.
20 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com.
40 alt3.aspmx.l.google.com.
30 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com.

If you need to query DNS records on the Internet, you can use the DNS lookup tool.

who and w

who shows users who are logged on.

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ who
ubuntu   pts/0        2020-08-14 17:28 (183.83.211.129)
ubuntu   pts/1        2020-08-14 17:58 (183.83.211.129)

w shows users currently logged on and their processes. The header shows the current time, system uptime, number of users logged on, and system load averages.

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ w
 18:07:33 up 46 days, 15:19,  2 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
USER     TTY      FROM             LOGIN@   IDLE   JCPU   PCPU WHAT
ubuntu   pts/0    183.83.211.129   17:28    2.00s  0.10s  0.00s w
ubuntu   pts/1    183.83.211.129   17:58    9:07   0.05s  0.01s vi

The next part shows the usernames, the terminal, and the remote IP from which they are logged on, login time, idle time, JCPU, PCPU, and the program they are running. JCPU is the time used by all processes attached to the tty whereas PCPU is the time used by the current process.

tar

With GNU tar you can archive multiple files into a single file.

As an example create a directory myfiles and three files a.txt, b.txt, c.txt in myfiles directory:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ mkdir myfiles ; touch myfiles/{a.txt,b.txt,c.txt}

Now to create an archive named allfiles.tar containing all files in myfiles directory:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ tar -cvf allfiles.tar myfiles
myfiles/
myfiles/c.txt
myfiles/a.txt
myfiles/b.txt

List all files in the current directory. You can see myfiles directory and allfiles.tar archive:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ ls
allfiles.tar  myfiles

You may unpack an archive with -x flag. So, to unpack allfiles.tar:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ tar -xvf allfiles.tar
myfiles/
myfiles/c.txt
myfiles/a.txt
myfiles/b.txt

You may also compress this archive with -z flag. This would create an archive compressed with gzip.

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ tar -zcvf allfiles.tar.gz myfiles
myfiles/
myfiles/c.txt
myfiles/a.txt
myfiles/b.txt
ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ ls
allfiles.tar.gz  myfiles

To unpack a compressed archive use -z with -x flag.

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ tar -zxvf allfiles.tar.gz 
myfiles/
myfiles/c.txt
myfiles/a.txt
myfiles/b.txt

grep

grep is used to search for a pattern in a file, or a set of files. It print all lines matching that pattern. For example, to search for the line containing “ServerRoot” in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ grep ServerRoot /etc/apache2/apache2.conf 
# ServerRoot: The top of the directory tree under which the server's
#ServerRoot "/etc/apache2"

To search in all files in a directory use *. To include search in subdirectories use -r (recursive) flag. So, to search for all lines containing the pattern “VirtualHost” in all files in /etc/apache2:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ cd /etc/apache2
ubuntu@ubuntu18:/etc/apache2$ grep -r VirtualHost *
apache2.conf:# If you do not specify an ErrorLog directive within a <VirtualHost>
apache2.conf:# logged here.  If you *do* define an error logfile for a <VirtualHost>
conf-available/localized-error-pages.conf:# even on a per-VirtualHost basis.  If you include the Alias in the global server
conf-available/other-vhosts-access-log.conf:# Define an access log for VirtualHosts that don't define their own logfile
ports.conf:# have to change the VirtualHost statement in
sites-available/000-default.conf:<VirtualHost *:80>
...

rsync

<a href="https://geekflare.com/rsync-guide/">rsync</a> is a fast command-line tool for synchronizing files and directories between two locations. Can be used for both local and remote copying and is fast because it sends only the differences between the source files and the existing files in the destination.

It is widely used for backups and as an improved copy command for daily use.

Here is an example:

To copy/rsync all files from myfiles directory to backups directory:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ rsync -avh myfiles/ /backups
sending incremental file list
./
a.txt
b.txt
c.txt

sent 218 bytes  received 76 bytes  588.00 bytes/sec
total size is 0  speedup is 0.00

To rsync all files from myfiles directory to backups directory on a remote host, include remote_user @remote_host in destination name. So, to rsync myfiles folder to a remote host with IP 10.0.0.50:

vagrant@ubuntu-xenial:~$ rsync -avh myfiles/ vagrant@10.0.0.50:/home/vagrant
vagrant@10.0.0.50's password: 
sending incremental file list
./
a.txt
b.txt
c.txt

sent 230 bytes  received 76 bytes  47.08 bytes/sec
total size is 0  speedup is 0.00

ss

ss command is used to dump socket statistics, similar to the legacy netstat utility. To display TCP sockets use -t flag.

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ ss -t 
State       Recv-Q        Send-Q                 Local Address:Port                     Peer Address:Port         
ESTAB       0             0                           10.0.0.4:53852                   168.63.129.16:8037         
ESTAB       0             0                           10.0.0.4:ssh                    183.83.211.129:64118        
ESTAB       0             0                           10.0.0.4:33256                 169.254.169.254:http         
ESTAB       0             1080                        10.0.0.4:ssh                     222.186.30.35:11527        
ESTAB       0             0                           10.0.0.4:ssh                    183.83.211.129:63049

This would not display sockets that are listening. To include both listening and non-listening sockets use -t and -a flags.

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ ss -t -a 
State        Recv-Q        Send-Q                Local Address:Port                     Peer Address:Port         
LISTEN       0             128                         0.0.0.0:ssh                           0.0.0.0:*            
LISTEN       0             80                        127.0.0.1:mysql                         0.0.0.0:*            
LISTEN       0             128                   127.0.0.53%lo:domain                        0.0.0.0:*            
ESTAB        0             0                          10.0.0.4:53852                   168.63.129.16:8037         
ESTAB        0             0                          10.0.0.4:ssh                    183.83.211.129:64118        
ESTAB        0             0                          10.0.0.4:33256                 169.254.169.254:http         
ESTAB        0             1080                       10.0.0.4:ssh                     222.186.30.35:11527        
ESTAB        0             120                        10.0.0.4:ssh                    183.83.211.129:63049        
LISTEN       0             128                            [::]:ssh                              [::]:*            
LISTEN       0             128                               *:http                                *:*

locate

The locate command uses a database to search for files and actually can be much faster than find command. Very simple to use, to search for a file, say, apache2.conf:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ locate apache2.conf
/etc/apache2/apache2.conf
/var/lib/dpkg/info/apache2.conffiles

You can use -c flag if you want only the count of files matching the search pattern.

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ locate -c apache2.conf
2

At times, you may need to refresh the database used by locate, which is mlocate. To update the database use updatedb command. This would need superuser privileges.

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ sudo updatedb

find

One of the most frequently used commands on Linux. Use it to search for files based on filenames, permissions, userid, groupid, size, file type, besides other criteria.

To search for a file by name in the current directory, use -name flag followed by the filename to search.:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ find . -name a.txt
./myfiles/a.txt

To search for directories, use -type d flag:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ find . -type d
.
./.ssh
./myfiles
./.cache
./.gnupg
./.gnupg/private-keys-v1.d
./docker

To search for files by size, say files larger than 20MB, use -size flag:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ find . -size +20M
./docker/docker-ce-cli_5%3a19.03.12~3-0~ubuntu-bionic_amd64.deb
./docker/docker-ce_5%3a19.03.12~3-0~ubuntu-bionic_amd64.deb

Learn more about the Linux Find command.

systemctl

Now that systemd has replaced SysV init process in most Linux distributions, use systemctl command to manage systemd services and units.

To start a service, for example apache2:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ sudo systemctl start apache2.service

You may leave the service suffix.

To stop a service:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ sudo systemctl stop apache2

To see service status, use systemctl status command. The following example shows apache2 status while it is running:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ sudo systemctl status apache2
● apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
  Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service.d
           └─apache2-systemd.conf
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2020-08-19 11:34:04 UTC; 2s ago
  Process: 25346 ExecStop=/usr/sbin/apachectl stop (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 18202 ExecReload=/usr/sbin/apachectl graceful (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
  Process: 25536 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/apachectl start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 25555 (apache2)
    Tasks: 55 (limit: 1024)
   CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
           ├─25555 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           ├─25558 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
           └─25559 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

Aug 19 11:34:04 ubuntu18 systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server...
Aug 19 11:34:04 ubuntu18 systemd[1]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.

ufw command

UFW – uncomplicated firewall is an easy to use frontend for iptables. It is available by default, on Ubuntu-based distributions. On CentOS, you can install ufw from the EPEL repository.

To enable ufw:

$ sudo ufw enable

Check firewall status with ufw status:

$ sudo ufw status
Status: active

Default UFW policies allow all outgoing traffic and block all incoming traffic.

The following command allows incoming traffic on HTTP port:

$ sudo ufw allow http
Rule added
Rule added (v6)

You can deny traffic on any port. Here is an example to block traffic on port 21:

$ sudo ufw deny 21
Rule added
Rule added (v6)

journalctl

Use journalctl to view logs collected by systemd. systemd collects log in a central location in a binary format. To view these logs:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ sudo journalctl
-- Logs begin at Mon 2020-06-29 02:48:31 UTC, end at Wed 2020-08-19 15:07:59 UTC. --
Jun 29 02:48:31 ubuntu kernel: Linux version 5.3.0-1028-azure (buildd@lcy01-amd64-003) (gcc version 7.5.0 (Ubuntu
Jun 29 02:48:31 ubuntu kernel: Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.3.0-1028-azure root=UUID=b0dd9d06-536e-41
Jun 29 02:48:31 ubuntu kernel: KERNEL supported cpus:
Jun 29 02:48:31 ubuntu kernel:   Intel GenuineIntel
...

Mostly, you would prefer seeing the logs in reverse order, that is, the latest logs first:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ sudo journalctl -r
-- Logs begin at Mon 2020-06-29 02:48:31 UTC, end at Wed 2020-08-19 15:10:16 UTC. --
Aug 19 15:10:16 ubuntu18 sudo[31263]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by ubuntu(uid=0)
Aug 19 15:10:16 ubuntu18 sudo[31263]:   ubuntu : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/ubuntu ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/journalc
Aug 19 15:10:11 ubuntu18 sudo[31213]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Aug 19 15:07:59 ubuntu18 sudo[31213]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by ubuntu(uid=0)
Aug 19 15:07:59 ubuntu18 sudo[31213]:   ubuntu : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/home/ubuntu ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/journalc
Aug 19 15:07:56 ubuntu18 sudo[31183]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Aug 19 15:06:47 ubuntu18 sudo[31183]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by ubuntu(uid=0)
...

To view logs of a specific service, for example mysql use -u flag:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ sudo journalctl -u mysql
-- Logs begin at Mon 2020-06-29 02:48:31 UTC, end at Wed 2020-08-19 15:11:34 UTC. --
Aug 16 12:30:02 ubuntu18 systemd[1]: Starting MySQL Community Server...
Aug 16 12:30:03 ubuntu18 systemd[1]: Started MySQL Community Server.
Aug 19 15:03:27 ubuntu18 systemd[1]: Stopping MySQL Community Server...
Aug 19 15:03:29 ubuntu18 systemd[1]: Stopped MySQL Community Server.

kill and killall

You may need to kill a runaway process or when you need to free some system resources. kill with -l flag shows all the signals you can send to a process.

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ kill -l
 1) SIGHUP	 2) SIGINT	 3) SIGQUIT	 4) SIGILL	 5) SIGTRAP
 6) SIGABRT	 7) SIGBUS	 8) SIGFPE	 9) SIGKILL	10) SIGUSR1
11) SIGSEGV	12) SIGUSR2	13) SIGPIPE	14) SIGALRM	15) SIGTERM
16) SIGSTKFLT	17) SIGCHLD	18) SIGCONT	19) SIGSTOP	20) SIGTSTP
....

Two most commonly used signals are SIGTERM AND SIGKILL. You can also use -9 for SIGKILL and -15 for SIGTERM. SIGTERM allows a process to complete before it is terminated and therefore is called soft kill. SIGKILL terminates the process immediately. Here is an example:

List all apache2 processes

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ ps aux|grep apache2
root      45521  0.0  0.5  78188  4688 ?        Ss   Aug08   0:03 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data  45524  0.0  0.5 830480  4816 ?        Sl   Aug08   0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data  45525  0.0  0.7 830480  6856 ?        Sl   Aug08   0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
ubuntu    70374  0.0  0.1  14852  1040 pts/0    S+   07:45   0:00 grep --color=auto apache2

To kill apache2 process with process id 45525:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ sudo kill -9 45525

Again view the list of apache2 processes:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ ps aux|grep apache2
root      45521  0.0  0.5  78188  4688 ?        Ss   Aug08   0:03 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
www-data  45524  0.0  0.5 830480  4816 ?        Sl   Aug08   0:00 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
ubuntu    70525  0.0  0.1  14852  1052 pts/0    S+   07:52   0:00 grep --color=auto apache2

Use killall to kill a program by name. Which means killall kills the control(parent) process and all child processes. To kill all instances of the apache2 process in the example above:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ sudo killall apache2

Use kill and killall with caution. These commands might leave the system in an unstable state.

IP

The ip command replaces ifconfig in the newer Linux distributions. Use it to configure and display network interfaces. Also used to display and modify IP addresses, routes, and neighbor objects.

Display information about all network interfaces:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ ip a
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 65536 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN group default qlen 1000
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 scope host lo
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 ::1/128 scope host 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:0d:3a:9b:88:d6 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 10.0.0.4/24 brd 10.0.0.255 scope global eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet6 fe80::20d:3aff:fe9b:88d6/64 scope link 
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

To bring an interface up or down use ip link set dev followed by the device name. For example, to bring the interface eth0 online:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ ip link set eth0 up

And to bring it down:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ ip link set eth0 down

date

A very commonly used command, here we explore some interesting ways to use this command.

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ date
Tue Aug 11 07:42:49 UTC 2020

To see next Sunday’s date:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ date -d 'next sunday'
Sun Aug 16 00:00:00 UTC 2020

To see last Sunday’s date:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ date -d 'last sunday'
Sun Aug  9 00:00:00 UTC 2020

You can also use –date instead of -d flag:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ date --date='last sunday'
Sun Aug  9 00:00:00 UTC 2020

To see date 6 days ago:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ date --date='6 days ago'
Wed Aug  5 08:06:37 UTC 2020

Date 6 days from now:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ date --date='6 days'
Mon Aug 17 08:08:37 UTC 2020

You can easily control date output format. Here is an example:

ubuntu@ubuntu18:~$ date '+%d-%B-%Y'
11-August-2020

Summary

You as a system administrator, keep the world’s computing infrastructure running. You need to solve problems, maintain and keep the systems running optimally while ensuring security.

Hope these commands will come in handy and help you do your job better.

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Vijay Khurana
Contributor
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Vijay Khurana is a FOSS and Linux enthusiast and technical writer with over 2 decades of experience. Through his writings, he brings his readers expert insights on Linux. Vijay has a passion for working on free software as well and enjoys sharing this technical expertise.