Here is a list of 100 lesser-known but highly useful Linux commands, tools, and utilities. These are especially helpful for system administrators, developers, and power users looking to go beyond the basics.
🗂️ File and Filesystem Utilities
bat– A modern replacement forcatwith syntax highlightingexa– Enhancedlswith colors and Git infotrash– Moves files to trash instead of deletingncdu– Visual disk usage viewertree– Show directory structure as a treefdupes– Find duplicate filesfd– Faster, user-friendly alternative tofindripgrep(rg) – Fast grep alternativebroot– Interactive directory navigatorxxd– Hex dump toolmc– Midnight Commander (file manager)dircolors– Configure color schemes forlsfilelight– Visual disk usage GUI (KDE)wipe– Secure file deletionrename– Batch rename filesshred– Securely delete fileslsattr– List file attributes on a Linux filesystemchattr– Change file attributesmlocate– Improved locate commanddfc– Colorizeddfoutput
🔧 System & Process Utilities
pgrep– Find process by namepstree– Show processes as a treepidstat– Per-process CPU usageiotop– Disk I/O usage by processpowertop– Power consumption monitoruptimed– Track system uptimewatch– Repeat a command at intervalstime– Time execution duration of commandslsof– List open filesfuser– Identify processes using files or socketsnmcli– Command-line interface for NetworkManageriptraf– Real-time network statisticsslabtop– Kernel slab cache statsvmstat– Memory, processes, I/O infodstat– System resource statisticshtop -s– Sort processes by specific metricsglances– Cross-platform system monitoruptime -p– Pretty format uptimeuname -a– Kernel and OS infolsb_release -a– Linux distribution info
🧪 Development & Debugging
strace– Trace system callsltrace– Trace library callsldd– Show shared librariesgdb– GNU debuggerperf– Performance analysisnm– List symbols in object filesobjdump– Display info about binariesreadelf– Display ELF headersvalgrind– Memory leak checkerlsof -p PID– Open files by PIDftrace– Kernel tracing frameworktcpdump– Capture network packetsethtool– Network interface configurationsysdig– System-level exploration toolbpftool– BPF program introspectionbpftrace– Tracing using eBPF
📋 Package & Software Management
rpm -qf– What package owns this filednf history– View recent install/remove logsapt-file– Search for files in .deb packagesdeborphan– Find orphaned packagescheckinstall– Create a .deb or .rpm from sourcealien– Convert between .deb and .rpmflatpak– Run sandboxed desktop appssnap– Canonical’s universal package managerbrew(Linuxbrew) – macOS-style package manager for Linuxrpmrebuild– Rebuild installed RPM packagesportage– Gentoo’s powerful package system
🔐 Security & Permissions
getcap– Show POSIX capabilitiessetcap– Set capabilitiessudoedit– Safer way to edit files as rootapparmor_status– Show AppArmor profilessemanage– Manage SELinux policy settingsauditctl– Configure auditing rulesfaillock– Show failed login attemptschage– View and change user password expiry infopasswd -S– Check password statuspwck– Password file consistency checkvisudo– Edit sudoers safelycracklib-check– Test password strengthjohn– John the Ripper password cracker (for audits)
🕒 Scheduling & Background Tasks
at– Schedule a one-time taskbatch– Run tasks when load permitssystemd-run– Run command as a transient serviceanacron– Run missed cron jobswatch -n– Run command repeatedly at intervalssleep– Delay executiontimeout– Limit execution timenohup– Run command immune to hangupsdisown– Remove job from shell job tablesetsid– Run command in new session
🌐 Network Tools
arping– Send ARP requestsnethogs– Show bandwidth by processiperf3– Measure network performancebmon– Bandwidth monitoriftop– Live traffic monitorvnstat– Network traffic loggercurl -I– Show HTTP headerswget -r– Recursive downloadopenconnect– VPN clientsocat– Multipurpose relay for sockets