Basic Linux SSH Commands

SSH is the remote-access protocol developed by Tatu Ylonen in 1995 to address security weaknesses in the remote-access protocols of that period.

The original article lists SSH 1.0 in 1995, SSH 2.0 in 2000, SSH 2.1 in 2014 and SSH 2.2 in 2019. This archived chronology and the command descriptions below have not been verified as current documentation.

The article introduces commands for basic SSH use on a cPanel server. Commands that remove files, stop processes, change services or restart the machine can affect a live server; review their scope before using them.

• pwd: shows the current directory. The original text compares it with the DOS dir command.
• cp: copies a file.
• ls: lists files and directories. Use man ls to read the available options.

Options discussed in the original article

ls -l: lists details such as size and date.

ls -a: includes hidden files.

ls -ls: described in the source as listing by size and date; consult the command manual for the actual option behavior.

• mkdir: creates a directory with the supplied name.
• touch: creates a file with the supplied name.
• rm: removes files.
• rmdir: removes a directory.
• tail: displays the last lines of a text file. tail -f follows a log file as it changes.
• nano: edits files, for example nano /etc/php.ini. The original article warns about unwanted line wrapping in configuration files and recommends nano -w filepath.
• service: starts, checks or stops services. service httpd restart is the source’s example for restarting Apache.
• ps: displays running processes and has multiple options.
• kill: stops a process using its PID.
• killall: stops running processes matching the application name.
• kill -6: the source describes using this with an eggdrop process PID. This archived description should not be treated as a general-purpose stop instruction.
• who: shows connected users.
• uname: shows kernel information.
• whoami: shows the current user.
• df: shows disk usage statistics.
• df -i: shows inode usage.
• watch: repeatedly runs the supplied command.
• whatis: the source mentions this for command information.
• scp: the source discusses transferring files over SSH and related remote operations; consult its manual for supported use.
• ftp: performs FTP connections and operations.
• wget: retrieves data from a URL.
• passwd: changes the account password; the source describes entering a new root password twice.
• man: displays command help.
• reboot: restarts the server.
• shutdown: shuts down the server.
• uptime: displays uptime and load.
• tar: creates or extracts archives.

tar -zxpf: extracts a tar.gz archive.

tar -xpf: extracts a tar archive.

• unzip: extracts ZIP archives.
• zip: creates ZIP archives.

This article was originally published in Turkish on 22 May 2024 and has been migrated from our previous website. This English version is a translation of the original article. The content may reflect information from that time.