Useful Linux Commands

Some common Linux terminal commands, that I use often.

Disk Usage

To check the free disk space, use the df command.

With no flag it produces output for all disks, reporting in (e.g 1k) block sizes. The -h flag gives human readable output:

Passing a directory argument reports the free disk space for the drive the directory is on.

To get disk usage, the du command is used. This also accepts the -h flag for human readable output and also a summary option with -s.

Used with a directory argument gives the disk space used just for that directory and all it’s subdirectories. eg: du -hs ./ reports disk usage for the current directory.

Running Processes

To get a quick over view of running processes use top: